


in the territory of the dragon king

by curledupkitten (chanyeol)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-17
Updated: 2014-05-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 18:06:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 121,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2160063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chanyeol/pseuds/curledupkitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>there are so many ghosts on this island. maybe that's why do kyungsoo has come: so his personal ghosts can get lost among them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Español available: [en el territorio del rey dragón](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6088977) by [runrun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/runrun/pseuds/runrun)



> aigu aigu old lady noises

⚘❁⚘

The streets are quiet as he walks home. Old Man Jung is out on his porch behind the short walls of piled black stone that protect his house from the wind, smoking cheap cigarettes, but otherwise, there isn't really anyone around.

Baekhyun whistles to fill the silence, an old fishing song that his dad used to sing. He jams his hands into his pockets, and shivers as he weaves through the maze of low stone walls that fill the small field behind the village.

It never seems like it should get this cold at night, even though Baekhyun's spent pretty much his whole life in Jejudo, and knows the weather as well as he knows the freckles that dot their way up his neck.

When his song ends, he doesn't start whistling another, instead straining his ears to hear the waves down on the coast. Looking down to where the fishing boats are tied up, Baekhyun can make out Minseok's dad and his sister. They've got an electric lamp between them, and there's laughter.

Baekhyun lives outside the village. It's sort of a long walk, but he usually doesn't mind. If he puts in his headphones and walks fast, it takes about twenty minutes to walk up to the old guesthouse. The view is gorgeous, too, during the day. He can see out into the distance, across the water. When Baekhyun first came here, to Jeolbyeog-ri, he used to sit out on the grass and watch the fishing ships. Minseok's dad's boat had always looked so small next to the Jeju-do commercial cruise ships, but Minseok's family brings in the fish that makes it to the village tables, so it's big enough.

The lights from the coast get further away as Baekhyun walks. The road turns from pavement to packed dirt, soft from today's rain storm. He can see the low roof and white painted walls of his home growing closer, and he's relieved. The walk has lessened the heaviness of overeating in his stomach, but it's later than he usually likes to make this trek. There's nothing to worry about, really, but old superstitions are hard to let go of.

With a final shiver, Baekhyun ducks into the house. All the lights are off, and he quickly switches the first one on, mumbling a brief prayer to his ancestors that the hall light will work. It's been flickering lately, but he still hasn't gotten around to buying a replacement from the village. He should have picked up one tonight before dinner, but he's always forgetting things like that.

It does turn on, though, so Baekhyun is saved again. When the light goes on, he can stop looking out of the corner of his eye for ghosts.

He leaves his muddy sneakers in the doorway and steps into the hall. He shuffles straight into the back, turning on the sink tap and wetting his toothbrush.

As he brushes his teeth, humming around the toothpaste, he ties up his hair to get it out of the way. He shakes his butt as he stoops down, toothbrush hanging out from between his lips, looking for his face scrub and finally finding it under the sink, next to the big metal pipes that lead to the main plumbing lines.

The knock is unexpected. Baekhyun has just washed his face when he hears it and he hurries to the front of the house, running a hand through his hair.

It's probably just Jongdae, with a bag full of beers and a couple of movies. Maybe he'd changed his mind about spending the night between now and dinner. Baekhyun rolls his eyes. They'd been arguing over baseball stats as Jongdae's brother had played referee, occasionally stopping Baekhyun from kicking his friend under the table. It's been like this since they were kids. Jongdae's calves are probably permanently bruised.

It's not Baekhyun's fault the KIA Tigers are awful. Jongdae always picks underdog teams to like and then complains about fair-weather fans.

Baekhyun's got a few bottles of soju in the fridge too, though, in case Jongdae does want to come inside and talk more shit.

When he opens the door, he's surprised to find a man in a suit, and not Jongdae at all. "I'm sorry," he says. "Is this… I was told there was a guesthouse nearby, just outside of town, and..."

"This is the place," says Baekhyun, opening the door wider. "I wasn't expecting anyone, sorry. Come on inside, where it's light. Even if it's not very _good_ light."

"Thank you," the man says. "I know it's late." It is. Last Baekhyun had looked at the clock, it was after ten at night. But travelers get lost sometimes, and it's not as though Baekhyun was asleep.

"It's not a problem," he says. The man only has a small bag with him, more like a backpack. It doesn't fit with the suit. When he steps into the hall, into the light, Baekhyun can see that his hair is gelled back, and he's wearing wire-framed glasses that sit evenly on his nose. His suit is high quality. Expensive. Silk.

"I'd like to book a room, if you have one," the man says. His voice is husky, soothing. There's no hesitation, now. He's slipping out of his shoes already, shiny leather next to Baekhyun's scuffed up Nikes.

"I do," says Baekhyun. Locking the door tightly behind them, he smiles. "Just a warning, but we don't have any Western style beds."

The man blinks. "That's not a problem."

"Can I get you a cup of tea while I fill everything out?" Baekhyun unlocks the cabinet in the hallway, pulling out his worn out netbook where he keeps the guest information, along with his grandmother's old-fashioned log book.

She'd always liked to have a record, even when they switched to digital. _"The computer won't tell you what their handwriting looked like,"_ she used to say, when he'd forget, back when he was still a teenager. _"What happens if that computer thing stops working? Are you just going to lose all your records?"_

_"Nothing's perfect, granny," he always replied. "But at least now we can take credit cards."_

"I'd like that," the man says, pushing at his glasses, and then he follows Baekhyun into the welcoming room.

⚘❁⚘

"I heard an unexpected guest dropped by last night," Chanyeol says, when Baekhyun walks into the kitchen. "That must have been exciting." He seems to already be up to no good, and it's only nine in the morning. He has a towel pressed to his arm, and Baekhyun gives it a cursory glance.

"How could you possibly have heard that already?" he asks, washing his hands, then opening up the rice cooker and pulling out the metal bowl. "What happened to you?"

"Run in with a skittish pony this morning," says Chanyeol. "A wild one got caught up in a torn fisher's net at some point and was interrupting the horseback tours up on the trails." He pulls the towel away, and there's a long scratch up his arms. "Luckily, the tour group seemed to think it was great that we still have ponies wandering the main island free."

"So after playing cowboy, you decided to drop by and bleed all over my kitchen? It looks like you need stitches," Baekhyun says, using his hands to measure the mix of cereal grains. He looks back at Chanyeol, who is nursing his arm with a frown, he adds enough cereal for an extra person. "After breakfast, you should probably get it checked out."

"It does not need stitches, you big baby," Chanyeol says. "It's just a shallow cut. Hurts like a bitch, but it's not deep." Baekhyun can hear Chanyeol grinning as he rinses the mixture of barley, rice and buckwheat, catching wayward grains with his little fingers as he pours the murky water out. When the water is running clear, Chanyeol speaks again. "So tell me about your visitor."

"I always forget how fast news travels out here." Baekhyun adds fresh water, now, and a small amount of salt, before he puts the metal bowl back into the cooker, shutting the lid and turning it on. "At least I'd just cleaned the guest bathroom. Mine is a mess."

"Everything about you is a mess," Chanyeol says, bumping Baekhyun with his shoulder then wincing as it jars his arm. "Don't worry, it adds to that cute thing that makes you a hit with the mom set."

"Shut up, Chanyeol." Baekhyun stabs Chanyeol in the ribs with his index finger, careful not to touch the arm but making his point just the same. Chanyeol yelps and calls for a truce as Baekhyun turns on the stove, making sure he isn't using too much gas.

"Not often we get new people out here in the off-season," says Chanyeol. "Especially not people driving cars that expensive."

They don't live in a touristy area. They're not that far from the city, but they _are_ far from the traps: from the amusement parks and the roped off views of volcanic rock and the bus guided tours. Out here, most of their visitors are people who like to fish or ride horses or hike, and the weather isn't good for recreational fishing or hiking right now, because of the rain. Baekhyun has to wear a coat most of the day, even inside, since he only has heaters in a couple of rooms. Most people come when it's warmer, and when the winds are calmer.

"He's quiet," says Baekhyun. "Maybe he's shy." He cracks four eggs into the skillet.

"Stuck-up city type?" asks Chanyeol, like he wasn't born and raised in a city himself. 

Baekhyun rinses his hands again and splashes the water from his fingertips into Chanyeol's face as he moves to the fridge, pulling out soy sauce and the mackerel he'd stripped yesterday afternoon before visiting Jongdae.

"No," he says, thinking back to the man with dark hair and shadowed eyes who'd checked in last night, writing his name with small fingers in childish, uneven letters into the guest book as Baekhyun had picked out his key and gathered a few fresh towels, chattering on about how the lamp switch was hiding around the back of it and how the shower water always took about two minutes to go from freezing to tolerable. He hadn't said a word back, just looked at Baekhyun with big eyes and waited for him to finish before he slipped into the room and locked the door. "Just, you know, regular old quiet."

"He chose the wrong guest house, then," laughs Chanyeol, who stands up to loom over Baekhyun's shoulder. "Let me watch the eggs. You always make the edges all weird and crunchy."

"You're hurt. And I like the edges crunchy."

"No you don't. You're just used to eating your mistakes."

Baekhyun kicks Chanyeol in the calf and sighs, then looks out the window. It's raining again today. He wonders what his guest will think of it. "Why do I even let you hang out around here?"

"Because otherwise you'd start talking to the animals outside," Chanyeol says, dodging the kick this time. "I hope the quiet guy isn't here for the scenic weather, to be honest." He shakes the pan. Baekhyun's never been a good enough cook to own a guesthouse, but he'd inherited it all the same. Jongdae's mother brings kimchi and bean sprouts once a week, from her restaurant, and Baekhyun takes that out of the fridge too, as the mackerel slowly steams.

"I don't know what he's here for," Baekhyun says. "But I hope he doesn't have any food allergies."

"I don't," says a voice from the doorway. "I've never had any allergies." The visitor, _Do Kyungsoo,_ Baekhyun recalls from the guestbook, studies them both through his hair with an eerily intense stare. "I'm not a picky eater, either. Am I early?"

"No," Baekhyun says, after a moment of words not making their way from his brain to his mouth. "You're just in time. Glad to see you remembered the way to the kitchen, Do-ssi. I'm almost done with breakfast."

"I hope you like fish," says Chanyeol, grinning. "That's what we eat around here. Pigs and fish." Kyungsoo's eyes widen at Chanyeol's volume and morning cheerfulness, and then he catches sight of Chanyeol's arm, with the towel draped over it.

"You're bleeding," he says, and Baekhyun thinks he looks caught between bewildered and grossed out. "In the kitchen."

"Wild horses couldn't keep him away from cooking eggs better than I can," Baekhyun says, and Chanyeol laughs, throwing his head back. "Go sit down, Chanyeol." He takes the pan away, and Chanyeol surrenders it easily enough, but then retaliates by tickling Baekhyun's neck, making Baekhyun jerk away quickly and give him the evil eye. "You too, Do-ssi."

Chanyeol flops down in his usual seat, grabbing chopsticks out of the cup on the side of the table and setting them out for all of them on the plastic floral tablecloth.

Kyungsoo clears his throat. "Kyungsoo will be fine," he says. "If that's all right with you?" He looks around the kitchen, eyes lingering on odd things, knickknacks, like the statue of an abalone fisherwoman his grandmother had left in the window, because it looks like Baekhyun's mother, or on the old cast iron skillets hanging from the wall. Baekhyun mostly doesn't use those. They were his grandmother's, too. Kyungsoo wouldn't know that, though, and he stares at them. "Do-ssi… I get that enough, at work. So I'd prefer Kyungsoo."

"That's fine," Baekhyun says. "We don't have much use for being formal out here. I'm Baekhyun."

"I remember," says Kyungsoo. "You introduced yourself last night." Baekhyun grins, and Kyungsoo blinks back at him. Man, those eyes. Baekhyun feels like he's being carefully evaluated. He wishes he'd combed his hair.

"I'm Park Chanyeol." A long arm reaches out across the table to grab a pickle from the dish close to Kyungsoo. "I don't work here. I just drop by to liven up Baekhyun's boring day."

"My days aren't boring," Baekhyun replies, sliding the eggs from the skillet onto a white plate. The edges are perfect. Fuck Chanyeol. "I get up to plenty of exciting things that aren't dangerous." He wrinkles his nose at Chanyeol, pulling a face, and Chanyeol chuckles. "Unlike some people I could name."

"How did you hurt yourself, Chanyeol?" asks Kyungsoo. He sits gingerly down in an empty chair. He's wearing a sweatshirt and jeans instead of the suit he'd been wearing last night, and in the light of day, he seems smaller, with his narrow shoulders and floppy, unstyled hair. Initially, Baekhyun had thought he was older, but now it's obvious he's around their age.

The hard line of his mouth seems softer this morning, too, and Baekhyun wonders if it was exhaustion pulling down the corners of his lips as he'd filled out the guest book, his watch scraping against the wood of the counter.

"I work with animals," Chanyeol says. "Ponies, mostly. I train the ones that do the tours, and sometimes I get called in to deal with the free ones that get into trouble. I really did have a run in with a wild horse this morning."

"He gets paid by the government to keep our UNESCO tickets from biting the hands that feed them," Baekhyun adds, and Chanyeol laughs again. "He gets mauled once a week."

"Baekhyun likes animals, too," Chanyeol says. "Don't let him fool you. He'll feed anything that shows up at the back door."

"I like animals," says Kyungsoo. "Not too many of them in Seoul that aren't tiny house-dogs or cats, though."

"The house dogs out here are a bit bigger," Baekhyun says, setting the pieces of mackerel on the table. The rice cooker starts to sing, and he serves up three bowls as Chanyeol makes small talk about his job.

Kyungsoo's eyes are expressive, even if his face doesn't move much. And Baekhyun was right, when he'd guessed his new guest wasn't that talkative: He responds monosyllabically to most of Chanyeol's queries. Chanyeol is undaunted, but Chanyeol and Baekhyun have both always been famous for being able to hold entire conversations without another person getting a word in edgewise.

"Am I the only guest?" Kyungsoo asks, seeming surprised when Baekhyun sits down with only the three bowls.

"There are more in the spring and summer," Baekhyun says, watching as Kyungsoo picks up his chopsticks. His hands are so small. "It's almost the dead of winter. Not much tourism."

"Of course," Kyungsoo says. He shakes his head. "It's so much warmer here than in Seoul right now, I didn't stop to think about the fact that tourism would be affected by the weather."

"So you're from Seoul, then?" Chanyeol chews with his mouth open, tiny pieces of egg yolk sticking to his lips as he pokes at his fish. "Where in Seoul?"

"South of the river." Kyungsoo looks down at his japgokbap. He's laid a piece of kimchi across it. "I mean, the Gangnam area. It was snowing there, yesterday morning."

"Must have been some drive," says Chanyeol. "That's buckwheat and barley, by the way. Enjoy a traditional Jeju breakfast."

"I like driving," Kyungsoo says. "And I've had japgokbap before." Baekhyun can see him curling in and puffing up just like a hedgehog, like they do right before they stick out their spines and stab his hands, so he interrupts before Chanyeol can make a mess of it. 

"We get snow in Jeju, too," Baekhyun says. "Up in the northern part of the island. Not so much down here yet, but later in the year, sure."

"We are pretty far south," Kyungsoo says.

"It's mostly rain this time year. Rain and wind. You're gonna get sick of mud in less time than it took you to drive down here." Baekhyun grins, flashing all of his teeth, and Kyungsoo slowly unfurls.

"Do you think it's too rainy to walk around?" He looks out the window, eyes stopping on the haenyeo statue again before looking out to take in the rain. Baekhyun's guesthouse is out of the way, and the paths are probably muddy.

"Might be too wet," says Chanyeol. He's stopped eating, and he's frowning down at his arm. Baekhyun thinks it looks worse than a cut, but Chanyeol's always tripping and falling over his own limbs, or getting bitten by weird wildlife. He'd know better than Baekhyun, despite his city boy roots. "It's not supposed to rain tomorrow, though, if you'd rather wait."

"I don't mind getting wet," Kyungsoo says. He's looking outside again, one hand pushing back his hair and the other gripping his chopsticks. Baekhyun knows the view from the kitchen window isn't that interesting.

"More like soaked," Baekhyun says, smiling. Kyungsoo looks at him, then, and Baekhyun had thought Kyungsoo's eyes were expressive, but maybe they aren't. He can't read anything in them now. "I can make tea when you get back, though."

"You don't need to go out of your way." Kyungsoo looks down at his food again, and takes another bite.

"So how long are you planning on staying out here, Kyungsoo-ssi?"

"I don't know," he replies. "Is that a problem?"

"Not at all," says Baekhyun. "There's no shortage of rooms, obviously." The mackerel is good. He's pretty sure Minseok's little sister had made this catch. Baekhyun will have to congratulate her, later, when he drops by to pick up fresh for dinner tonight. "You can stay as long as you like."

Kyungsoo sighs. "As long as I'd like, huh?" Something about that is funny to Kyungsoo, but Baekhyun doesn't know what. Kyungsoo sets down his chopsticks. "Please excuse me," he says. "I have to make a few calls."

"Good luck with that," Baekhyun says. "It's hard to get reception out here, sometimes. Service doesn't quite extend to the guest house."

"I'll keep that in mind," Kyungsoo says. "Thanks for breakfast. It was delicious."

"You're welcome," Baekhyun says. When Kyungsoo has left the kitchen, his rice bowl and plate stacked neatly by the sink, Chanyeol looks at Baekhyun with a raised eyebrow.

"Definitely quiet," he says, and Baekhyun chuckles.

"It'll be a nice change from the usual loudmouths I have hanging around here." That's not exactly true. Baekhyun likes the noise. It's comforting. Still, a guest does mean activity in the guesthouse when he'd normally be alone.

"You're the biggest loudmouth of all," Chanyeol replies, before starting to wolf down the rest of his breakfast, as Baekhyun studies the empty place across from him.

 _Do Kyungsoo_ , he thinks, absently pushing a piece of egg into his mouth. (It does taste better, without the crunchy parts.) Well, things had been getting a bit boring around here.

⚘❁⚘

Running a guesthouse in the winter is usually easy. Baekhyun keeps things mostly orderly, but maybe doesn't scrub the windows as hard as he should.

His third year of high school, he and Yixing used to race to get them clean, Yixing taking the back windows and Baekhyun taking the front ones. Afterwards, Baekhyun's grandmother would judge, and the winner would get first choice on what they watched that evening on television.

There's no one to race with now, though, and no one to judge, so Baekhyun just squirts glass cleaner in the centers and gives a cursory wipe down. In the spring, it's different, because pollen collects in the corners. Chanyeol is allergic to even the idea of spring, so Baekhyun is more careful.

He can't remember ever having a guest in the winter, at least not since he'd taken over. The dates in his grandmother's log book range from March to October. Do Kyungsoo is a lone entry, his late November entry scribbled in with the wrong pen, one with dark navy ink instead of the uniform black of the rest of it, that he'd fished out of the inside pocket of his perfectly tailored suit.

After Chanyeol leaves, Baekhyun takes off his jacket and rolls up his sleeves. Going out back, he turns on the outdoor spigot, filling the large plastic bucket he keeps for mopping and bringing it inside. Even that short trip outside has left his shirt damp across his shoulders from the rain.

Through the back door, he stands and looks out at the grassy hills, surveying the puddles forming along the trail that leads up into the overlooks. For a moment, he imagines what this storm might look like in Seoul. He and Yixing used to talk about Seoul a lot. Or, well, Baekhyun talked, and Yixing listened, occasionally bugging Baekhyun about unfamiliar Korean words as Baekhyun curled his arms around his knees and thought about universities and noisy neighborhoods and parties like in the dramas.

Then he shakes his head and drags the bucket further inside, and gets the mop from the bathroom.

He starts in the hall, occasionally using the mop as a microphone as he sings along to his music, switching directions at every chorus until the hallways and the kitchen are clean, the winter dust gone from the wood.

Baekhyun is mopping the floors in the main room when he catches sight of Kyungsoo lingering in the doorway. He takes out his headphones, and smiles. "Do you need something?" He wipes the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm. He's hot, but it's better than the chill that lurks throughout the entire guesthouse once November hits.

"You were right about the phone service," Kyungsoo says, pinning Baekhyun with that penetrating stare again as he scratches his neck with his index finger, like it's too much effort to use his whole hand. Then he looks up completely, and the corners of his mouth lift, softening his entire face. The transformation catches Baekhyun off-guard. "I'm not sure why I thought my phone would work when yours doesn't."

"We have a better time with it when the winds aren't so strong," says Baekhyun, stretching his arms above his head to stretch out the tightness between his shoulders. "But signal's usually pretty weak. If you want all the conveniences of home, you'd be better off in a more bustling part of Seogwipo." He laughs, afterward, so that Kyungsoo won't think he's chastising him, or asking him to leave. "It's just the bare necessities, internet-wise."

"I don't particularly want to be reachable." Kyungsoo's sweatshirt sleeves are too long, and they hide half of his hands. Earlier, they'd been pushed up to bare his forearms. "The thought of no one being able to call me is… it's really a relief. I just want to reassure a few people that I'm all right."

"Makes sense," says Baekhyun. It goes against every fiber of him not to ask questions, but Kyungsoo is doing the hedgehog thing again, so he rocks back on his heels and starts dunking the mop, just to give himself something to do with his hands.

Baekhyun's music plays frantically from his headphones, like it too finds the silence awkward, high female voices reaching a chorus that's most likely audible where Kyungsoo is standing. Kyungsoo almost smiles. This time, he's definitely amused.

"Do you know where I would get service?" Kyungsoo scratches his neck as he surveys the room, then runs a hand through his hair. Baekhyun hadn't been expecting anyone at the guesthouse until spring, so there's clutter everywhere, magazines stacked waist high on the low table in the center of the room and cutouts of his favorite girl idol groups taped to the furthest wall. "I really do need to make a couple of calls."

Kyungsoo waves his phone. It's one of those big fancy ones, with a screen that's big enough to be a computer and five hundred applications on it so it works just like one.

"The signal's pretty good in the village," says Baekhyun, after a moment's thought. "It's a twenty minute walk." He thinks about the Lexus in the small lot outside, next to Baekhyun's scooter. "It'd take you about five minutes to drive there, though, if you were worried about the mud on the upper end of the path." It would be overkill, but the mud might be treacherous for someone who is unused to navigating it. "Or you could walk along the wider paved road instead of taking the path, the way you drove up." He hums. "Just be careful. The weather on this island can change without warning."

"Oh," says Kyungsoo. "I _did_ get signal when I stopped there last night to check the map on my phone. I ended up asking a local about nearby hostels and guest houses, and someone recommended this place. An older man, smoking on his porch. He said it was family owned."

"It is," Baekhyun says. "My family." He sticks the mop in the bucket and puts his hands on his hips. "Everything around here is, really. The convenience store, all the markets. Even that little theater by the convenience store is owned by the same family that rents the boats, down by the water. This particular village doesn't have a lot to offer tourists, really. We get hikers, mostly, making their way across the Olle Trails, and that's about it." He rubs his hands on the front of his jeans. "Mostly this village is just the people who work with the tamed ponies, and the fishers and divers."

"Like the statue in the kitchen window, right?" says Kyungsoo. He isn't wearing socks, and his feet are as small as his hands. Despite that, and all his quiet contemplation, Kyungsoo does not feel small to Baekhyun. Instead, his presence spills out into the air and fills up the room. "Abalone divers. The haenyeo are pretty famous outside of Jeju too. My mom used to talk about them. About the lady divers."

"There are hardly any of them anymore," says Baekhyun, as he plays with one of his headphone buds, tapping his foot to the beat. Kyungsoo's gaze drops to it, and Baekhyun stops until Kyungsoo looks back up at his face again. Then he starts tapping again. "There aren't as many fishermen's widows these days, and it's dangerous, you know? Diving ten meters down into the water without oxygen tanks or anything like that, especially with all the rocks. Plus, everyone young wants to move away from small villages like this, to the city, or up north, to Jeju-si. It can be too quiet, out here, if you're not used to it."

Even if you _are_ used to it, really. Sometimes, at night, when the wind blows through the trees and grass, it sounds like someone whispering. Baekhyun always sleeps with music playing to drown it out.

"It's nice," Kyungsoo says. "Peaceful." He turns to leave, but pauses, looking back at Baekhyun. His eyes are brighter than they'd been at breakfast. "Honestly, as loud as you were singing, I don't think it'll ever be _too quiet_."

That surprises another laugh out of Baekhyun, who still has music blasting out of his headphones where they hang around his neck. He's still laughing as Kyungsoo gives him a jaunty little wave, disappearing and leaving Baekhyun to his mopping.

Kyungsoo goes out a little while later, with his sweatshirt hood pulled up to cover his hair and holding onto his big computer-phone, and Baekhyun watches out the window as he picks his way down the wide dirt path, slowly and carefully jumping the puddles. When he's out of sight, Baekhyun goes back to organizing his magazines, but he watches the clock until Kyungsoo comes back home, just to make sure he gets in safe.

There's nothing dangerous in sleepy little Jeolbyeog-ri, but Kyungsoo is new around here, and he's not getting lost on Baekhyun's watch.

When Kyungsoo returns, the sharp lines around his mouth are back, and he goes into his room, turning the lock, and doesn't come out for dinner. Baekhyun eats alone, and as he rinses the dishes, scrubbing out the metal bowl from the rice cooker, starch collecting under his fingernails, the rain finally turns to drizzle, then stops.

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun and Jongdae have been coming out here for years, walking the three kilometers along the rocks and sharing a bottle of liquor between them as they go. (The liquor's new. It used to be a big bottle of Hwanta, the pineapple flavor. Baekhyun had turned twenty, first, and Mrs. Kim at the convenience store refused to sell him soju anyway until Jongdae turned twenty, too. _"I know what you'll get up to, and with whom,"_ she'd said, and not even Baekhyun's eye flutters could convince her otherwise. But she'd laughed, and Baekhyun hadn't really minded that much.)

The water's mostly shallow in the inlet, a meter deep at the far edge but half that where they sit above it, on the rocks, and it licks at the sand every once in a while as the wind tries to blow Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Soojung back from whence they came.

When Baekhyun was just a kid, maybe nine, he and Jongdae used to sneak off by themselves and draw in the sand with their hands, artistic masterpieces that would get washed away. The silt would scrape at Baekhyun's hands, scraps of shell leaving nicks in the skin, and they'd eventually have to go chasing the empty Hwanta bottle out into the water. Soojung, when she'd started to follow them out, taught them to put small rocks through the neck of the bottle to weigh it down so the wind wouldn't blow it out to the water's edge.

As they got older, lost plastic action figures turned into first tries at cigarettes and singing folk songs at the top of their lungs into the wind where no one could hear them until they went hoarse. When they brought Yixing along, he'd play guitar for them, old trot numbers he'd picked up the tune of from listening to 90.9 on the FM radio with Baekhyun's grandmother all day while Baekhyun was at school.

Now… now they come out here and just talk, and Baekhyun can pretend he's still fifteen, and that he's not already halfway through his twenties and looking at the rest of his life being more of the same.

Today is overcast, much like the rest of the week has been. Jongdae had shown up at the guesthouse that afternoon with Soojung in tow, mouth stretched cat-like. "We're going out to the inlet," he says. "You in?"

"Don't you have work?" Baekhyun had joked, even as he'd slipped his arms into his coat.

Soojung is home for the weekend from university. She comes back once a month, full of stories for Baekhyun and Jongdae about her lab partner for biology class and the new PC game everyone is obsessed with. She bubbles over with excitement about the professor from Busan who wears bright colored blazers to every science lecture, and about how she made foreigner friends at a concert and gets to use her English all the time now. She'd always been the best at it, in high school: even older students like Baekhyun had taken advantage and gotten her help with homework. Baekhyun bets she fits right in.

It's not anything different than her sister Sooyeon had talked about, but that hadn't felt the same. Sooyeon was older, rivals with Baekhyun's forever crush Kim Taeyeon, and up on a pedestal nearly as high. With Soojung, it's different. She's younger than him, but she's already talking about graduate schools, and studying marine biology overseas.

It leaves a taste saltier than dried octopus on the back of his tongue.

"You haven't been around this week," says Jongdae. "It's weird eating dinner with people who don't have horrible opinions about everything."

"Your voice has been giving me digestion problems," Baekhyun says. "I needed some time to recover." Jongdae grabs him around the shoulders in a chokehold that's more like a hug, and nuzzles his cheek against Baekhyun's hair, gathering static electricity, and then sputters as the hair sticks to his mouth.

"You love me," he says, after he's disentangled himself and walked back over to the rock, climbing up to a higher one covered in sea moss. "So what's up?"

"You know I have a guest," says Baekhyun. "I've got to stay around and, you know, feed him and make sure things are going all right."

"You have a guest? In the winter?" Soojung runs a hand through her hair. It streams like a banner behind her when she pulls her fingers free. Jongdae stares at her, and then blinks and looks back down at his feet. "Weird."

"Yeah," says Baekhyun, sitting back onto his butt so he can stick his legs out in front of himself. "Kind of."

"I saw him on Thursday," Jongdae says. "Walking down past the post office. He's got eyes like serving plates. It's intimidating."

"He wanted signal for his phone. He said he needed to make a few calls."

"You really ought to call the phone company, oppa," says Soojung. "It's practically criminal that you don't get reception up there."

"It's not a big deal," Baekhyun says. "Especially since…" It had been a bigger problem, before, when his grandmother had been sick. Baekhyun had learned how to turn the twenty-minute walk to the center of the village into a seven minute run.

"You could die up there and no one would know for days," Soojung says. "That's creepy."

"What's creepy," Baekhyun says, "is that you think about shit like that." He squints at a particularly strong gust of wind. "I'm not alone up at the house right now, though, so at least for now, you can rest at ease."

"Speaking of not being alone," Soojung says, raising an imperious eyebrow, "what's he like?" With that expression, and the wind in her hair, she looks like a warrior queen or something. Baekhyun wishes he had a fancy phone, just so he could take a good picture.

"Chanyeollie says he's super quiet." Jongdae's moved over another rock, to a flatter surface. He's squatting down, digging at the moss with a stick. He has the open bottle of soju in his other hand, which Soojung snatches from him. He grabs her wrist and tickles the inside of it, and when she laughs he relinquishes his hold, stretching across the rocks when he looks over at Baekhyun. "Or at least, that he doesn't talk much."

He doesn't. Since that first day, when Kyungsoo had come back from his long walk into the village drenched, his brow furrowed, Baekhyun hasn't seen too much of him. He comes out for breakfast, sometimes, and always for dinner, but he mostly stays in his room, doing goodness knows what. Four days have passed, since then, and Baekhyun's curiosity, at some point, will eat him alive. "He's not a bother," says Baekhyun. "Not everyone comes out here to make friends."

"The divers will scare him, then," Jongdae says.

The divers always want to make friends. Baekhyun feels like he knows most of those old ladies well enough that they'd list him as next of kin on a hospital form. Old ladies have always liked Baekhyun, because he flirts with them outrageously and lets them do whatever they want with his hair as long as they don't cut it.

"I wonder what he's all the way out here for," says Jongdae. "There's literally nothing to do."

"Maybe that's why," says Soojung. "Maybe he's the opposite of us, you know? It might be that he needs a break from all the noise. Sometimes…" She rubs her hands on her knees. "Sometimes I miss how nice the air is, out here. Or how I can hear myself think."

"What I think…" Baekhyun grabs the soju from Soojung, and takes a long swig. The ocean is louder in the winter, breaking harder against the coast. He should have worn a thicker jacket, since it's ever nearing 0 Celsius as the afternoon wears on. "Is that we gossip way too much in this village."

"Not like there's much else to do," Jongdae says. "You coming over tonight? When you're over, my mom doesn't obsess over my brother being single so much because she has you to distract her."

"No," Baekhyun says, pulling a face at the thought of eating his own cooking again. "I have a guest, remember?"

"You're not shackled to the place," says Jongdae. Baekhyun looks down at his sneakers, with their scuffed toes, and at the gray of the rocks beneath them. "Bring him with you. Mom won't mind."

"He might mind," says Soojung. "I'd mind. Eating with you two is like eating with toddlers. All that yelling and leg wrestling and crying." She stands up from her squat, dusting off her pants. "The birds are coming in to roost." She grins. "That's our cue to leave. Wouldn't want to be here after dark."

"I really should go, anyway," says Baekhyun. He has things to do, back at the guesthouse. He should start dinner, for one thing. He also promised Minseok that he'd take a look at the roof and make sure it'll be good through the rest of the winter rains, so that he can come over to fix it if it won't. He should write an e-mail to Yixing, as well, to save for the next time he takes his netbook into the village. "Stuff to do." He hands Jongdae back his soju bottle, then accepts Soojung's hand up.

There's moss stuck to his butt, and when he wipes it off it sticks to his fingers. He holds them out into Jongdae's face. "You're gross, cut your nails," Jongdae says, and Baekhyun pretends he's about to grip Jongdae's cheeks as Jongdae squirms backwards, falling hard onto his butt and almost slipping from the rock.

"Behave," Soojung says, linking her arm with Baekhyun and starting to walk, leaving Baekhyun no choice but to follow.

"Is that a ‘no' on dinner?" Jongdae asks, and Baekhyun laughs. "Soojung is going to join me."

"I can't," she says. "Family night." Jongdae pouts at her, and Baekhyun grins.

"Yeah," he says. "It's definitely a ‘no'. I wouldn't want to subject Kyungsoo to your terrible taste in baseball teams, anyway."

"It's not even baseball season," Soojung says. "Can we give it a rest until March?"

"Soojung," Jongdae says, laughing as he drinks the last of the soju, "it's always baseball season in our hearts." His cheeks are flushed, either from the wind or from the alcohol, and he wobbles as he stands, the wind choosing that moment to gust.

Soojung's long, silky hair blows into her face as she laughs, catching on her lips. She's so pretty, when she laughs, and Baekhyun remembers being a little in love with her in high school. Jongdae was too, and he'd always wondered which one of them she'd choose. The answer had ended up being neither of them. That had been so long ago. "What a shame," she says, "since the rest of us could use a respite."

"You get a respite for most of the year now," Baekhyun points out, as Jongdae links himself through Baekhyun's other arm, and Soojung gives him her patented deep frost look for daring to contradict her.

"Funny how that isn't long enough when I'm dealing with you losers," she says, and Jongdae and Baekhyun make kissy faces at her as they step up from the rocky beach to the grass, and start back toward home.

They walk back precariously along the rocks instead of climbing up to solid ground, Jongdae shrieking every time the waves lap at his feet but tiptoeing back into the water's path anyway, only to shriek again as another wave crashes in. He has the empty green plastic _Chamisul_ bottle clutched in his hand for dear life, which is probably the only thing that keeps Soojung from grabbing it and clocking him upside the head for his antics.

They split up when they get to the main road in the village, Jongdae going back around his house to spray down the grills, since after dark is when most people show up for black pig samgyeopsal at his family's restaurant. Soojung waves goodbye as she splits off to go to her place. Sooyeon is home for the weekend as well, and she and Old Man Jung are standing out front, leaning forward onto the uldam. "Baekhyun-ah! You should get home quickly," Old Man Jung yells out to him. "It's about to rain."

Baekhyun quickens his pace, because Old Man Jung's always right about the weather. He doesn't make it home before the sky opens up and does its best to drown him, and he's chilled to the bone by the time he gets all the way up to the guesthouse.

When he steps out of his wet shoes and into the hall, he hears the sound of something frying. Frowning, he leaves his wet socks stuffed into his shoes, and then walks barefoot to the kitchen.

Kyungsoo is standing over the stove. He has food cooking on both burners of the stove, and several plates full of things Baekhyun's never even _tried_ to cook spread out on the table behind him. There's a big dish of tofu, at the center of the table, in a brown sauce, and Baekhyun would steal a piece if there wasn't beach all over his hands. "You got the burners working?" Even Chanyeol has trouble with them sometimes. Baekhyun's touch, Chanyeol has assured Baekhyun, works some kind of supernatural magic on the old stove.

Startled, Kyungsoo almost drops the long cooking chopsticks he's using to flip whatever's in the pan. "It was tricky," he says. His voice is dry, like Baekhyun gets when he's talked either too much or too little. "How old is this thing?"

"Well," says Baekhyun, "it's definitely post-war?" That's a vague window, but all Baekhyun knows is that it's older than he is. "But it's been here since before I was born for sure."

"I hope you don't mind me using it," Kyungsoo says, without turning around. "I felt like cooking." The back of his neck is flushed. Is he embarrassed? That's really… cute, Baekhyun thinks. He likes the way Kyungsoo's voice gets a little higher when he's not as sure, and he especially likes the way his ears go dark at the tips.

"Ah," Baekhyun says, still stunned. Kyungsoo hadn't even emerged for breakfast this morning, so seeing him all domestic in front of the stove is strange. He's wearing soft black cotton pants that drag on the floor, too long for his short legs, and an unremarkable T-shirt in a gentle maroon. He's a shadow in this room of pastels and florals. He also looks pale and thin, under the yellow kitchen lamp. "No, I… you went shopping?"

"Everyone is so… talkative, and friendly," Kyungsoo says. "Back in my neighborhood—" He stops, and then fusses with the burners. Baekhyun waits, but Kyungsoo clearly isn't planning to continue.

"Did you… find everything okay? If you'd told me, I would have gone with you." Baekhyun watches as Kyungsoo expertly pulls crispy dumplings from the pan and sets them on tissue to drain.

"I didn't know where you were," he says.

"Went down the coast with a couple of friends," says Baekhyun, chewing on his lower lip. "Wasn't sure if you were coming out of your cave today or not." He immediately slaps his hand over his mouth. "Sorry, I'm so used to…"

"My cave?" Kyungsoo pushes at the last of the dumplings, checking to see if they're cooked through. "Do I look like a bear to you?" Baekhyun's not sure if there's a right answer.

"Maybe a teddy bear," he says, shrugging. He wants to tell Kyungsoo he reminds him more of a hobbit, like from Lord of the Rings, but he doesn't think that'll go over _better_ than the bear comment.

"I'm a lot grumpier than any teddy bear you'll ever find," says Kyungsoo.

"Caves down by the shore are much more likely to have crabs in them than bears, anyway," Baekhyun says. "Sorry I wasn't around to help."

"I don't expect you to wait around in case I want to go somewhere on a whim, in any case." Kyungsoo looks up at him, and smiles lightly. The dark circles are gone, from underneath his eyes, and his shoulders are less slumped. "It wasn't so bad. The walls of piled stones made me feel like a rat in a test maze, but they really do block the wind. I have to say, though…"

"What?" Baekhyun moves to the sink and soaps up his hands to clean them, digging sand and moss out from under his fingernails as he closes his eyes and takes in all the different smells. This is how the kitchen used to be, when his grandmother cooked everything.

"Sometimes, I think the people in Jeju are speaking another language." Baekhyun looks over his shoulder at Kyungsoo, whose brows are knit together in consternation. "It took me some time to get used to the dialect that the older people were speaking. Yours isn't that strong."

"My generation grew up with, you know, a _television_ ," says Baekhyun. "We watch most of the same shows and stuff you watch up there in Seoul, so we speak in a mix. The older folks have a lot stronger dialect than we do. It _is_ a different language, almost."

"I see," says Kyungsoo. "I… knew a person from Jeju, once, but they didn't speak with all of your special Jeju lingo." He's starting to do the hedgehog thing again, so Baekhyun takes over the thread of conversation.

"With tourism," says Baekhyun, "and that new navy base they're building, there's a lot of incentive to learn to speak like mainlanders."

"That's a shame," says Kyungsoo. "I like the way Jeju-speak sounds."

"Even if it takes some getting used to?" Baekhyun teases, and he's rewarded with another quirk of Kyungsoo's lips.

Kyungsoo picks the dumplings up with careful fingers, and moves them to a plate. He brings it over to the table. "It feels...strong." He raises and eyebrow, and Baekhyun is expecting him to explain, but he doesn't. "You should change your clothes, right?" He talks like someone who is used to being in charge.

"Right," Baekhyun says, drifting down the hall to his room. He strips out of his wet clothes and changes into a pair of soft Pusan National sweatpants he'd stolen from his brother more than six years ago, pockets gone threadbare and lettering starting to peel. He picks up his towel from the back of his desk chair and dries his hair as the smell of food makes his stomach growl. "Hush, hush," he says, patting it. "I'll feed you in a minute."

He accidentally drips all over the _Learn Chinese!_ book on his desk, and frowns as he thinks _not like I was actually learning anything, anyway._

When he walks back out, Kyungsoo has already dished up rice from the rice cooker. "I think you made enough to feed ten people," he says. "Luckily, I can eat enough for seven, so I'm counting on you to take care of the last three portions. Not that I'm telling you that you have to eat more food than you want to, or anything like that, so don't get the idea that—"

Kyungsoo pins him with a stare. "Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?"

"Someone tells me at least once a day," Baekhyun says, laughing. "And if I don't see anyone, I tell myself." 

Kyungsoo looks down and sighs. "Then I probably shouldn't waste my breath." He says it blandly, avoiding meeting Baekhyun's gaze again, but Baekhyun doesn't get the impression that he's actually bothered.

As they sit down across from each other at the table, Baekhyun watches Kyungsoo, noticing the way he straightens the plates, and the way he's carefully arranging them so they can both reach everything equally.

There's so much. Looking at all the food on the table, Baekhyun wonders if Kyungsoo got bored today.

Or maybe lonely. Baekhyun swallows. Loneliness is something Baekhyun sometimes knows all too well, out here alone at the guesthouse. There's no reason for his guest to feel it, when Baekhyun is right here. He can try harder, and treat Kyungsoo more like he treats his friends than like he treats guests.

"Do you have plans for tomorrow?" Baekhyun asks, picking up a dumpling and putting the whole thing in his mouth. It's too hot, and scalds him, so he puts a hand up to hide his open mouthed chewing. As it cools, he can finally taste it, slightly spicy, little pieces of minced ginseng coming alive on his tongue, and he grins. "You're almost as good as Chanyeol."

"I wouldn't know," Kyungsoo says, but the tips of his ears turn red. "I like cooking, occasionally. Not something I usually do just because, I guess."

"Given the choice," admits Baekhyun, "I'd live entirely on junk food if left to my own devices, and when I wanted the nice stuff, Jongdae's mom owns a restaurant, and she's always ridiculously happy to feed me, you know? So I never really got into cooking." He clenches his jaw to stop the flow of words.

"That's why you think this is any good. It's not. I never really had the time to get better at it."

Baekhyun tries a piece of the tofu, and wrinkles his nose at how spicy it is. "Well you have time now?" He licks at the sauce on his lips. "I mean, I don't know why you're here, but you can use the kitchen whenever you want."

Kyungsoo blinks at him, surprised, and then gives him the smallest half smile. "Yes," he says, "I guess I do have time."

"So _are_ you busy tomorrow?" he asks again, and Kyungsoo swallows.

His hair falls so dark across his forehead, soft and clean, and the look on his face makes Baekhyun want to fluff it. He doesn't think a guy like Kyungsoo would take too kindly to that from anyone, let alone a virtual stranger. "Because if you're not, I could show you around. It's not supposed to rain, tomorrow."

"I walked around today," Kyungsoo says. He eats a bite of tofu, smudging brown sauce across his lower lip. "You can walk Jeolbyeog-ri end to end in less than ten minutes. So…"

"Population is less than two hundred. It's not like we need a bigger village." Baekhyun shrugs. "But I wasn't talking about the village. There are shrines up in the hills," he says, wiping at the sauce with his little finger. Kyungsoo is looking at him again, evaluating. "I could show you one. And an amazing view of the area."

"Shrines?" Kyungsoo scratches his neck again with that single digit, all the while searching Baekhyun's face. "What kind of shrines?"

"You interested?" Baekhyun favors Kyungsoo with one of his biggest grins. "Could be fun~"

Kyungsoo crosses his arms. "Would it take all day?"

If they go all the way to the end of the trail, it might. Baekhyun hasn't gone all the way up in a couple of years. The last time had been at the end of winter, over two years ago. The spring blooms were on the verge of peeking out. He still remembers the way, though, as easily as if he'd climbed to the top just last week.

"Most of it," Baekhyun says. "And I'm a very noisy tour guide, since sometimes, on that hike, I'm tempted to think too much." He wriggles in his seat. "Well, I'd probably be noisy anyway."

"You do seem to have a lot of… extra energy." Baekhyun laughs, not taking offense. "An entire noisy day, huh?" Kyungsoo plucks a dumpling from the pile. "Well, I think I could survive it."

"Who knows," Baekhyun says, selecting another dumpling for himself as he grins at the man across from him. "Maybe you'll even enjoy yourself."

"Maybe," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun gives himself a mental pat on the back at the way Kyungsoo relaxes through the rest of dinner, chiming in with small tiny questions during Baekhyun's longwinded anecdotes, and smiles softly as Baekhyun washes the dishes, his hands wrapped around a warm mug of tea.

⚘❁⚘

Kyungsoo is already awake when Baekhyun stumbles blearily into the kitchen, rubbing at his eyes. "Not a morning person?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun tries to smile but probably grimaces at him.

"Not really," he mumbles, then repeats it in a mainlander dialect when Kyungsoo gives him an odd look. "Morning is so rude. I'm sleeping, and it shines the sun right into my eyes."

"How dare the sun come up," Kyungsoo says dryly. "Coffee?"

"Blech," Baekhyun says. "I'd honestly rather drink the mud outside." He rubs at his eyes again, and yawns, sticking his tongue out as he stretches his arms above his head.

After breakfast, Baekhyun fills a small backpack with snacks, and makes sure to tuck a piece of thin white paper into his coat, in the inside right pocket, so it presses against his chest.

Kyungsoo is waiting for him in the hall, and he doesn't have anything with him at all, his phone left behind. He's wearing jeans and another sweatshirt, this one with SNU in large-font letters across the front. Again, the sleeves are too long, and Baekhyun clicks his tongue behind his teeth. "Do you have a coat?" He has an extra piece of white paper with him, and he wiggles it impatiently between his fingers.

"I packed light," Kyungsoo says. "I brought my wool coat, but it doesn't do much against this wind." He licks his lips, slowly. "It'll be fine."

"It won't, you'll totally die," Baekhyun says. He sets down his backpack, puts the white paper in his jeans pocket, and shucks his coat off, draping it over Kyungsoo's shoulders. At first, Kyungsoo tries to duck away from the touch, but then he realizes what Baekhyun is doing and helps, sliding his arms in. "It'll be a little big." Kyungsoo looks up at him, and Baekhyun realizes how close he's standing. Kyungsoo's skin is clear and soft, with small pores and not a single freckle or blemish. Baekhyun is jealous. "Sorry," he mumbles, his face going hot, and he steps back. "I'm going to go grab another coat."

"Thank you," Kyungsoo says quietly, zipping up. He pulls the hood out of the collar and up to cover his hair. Baekhyun's coat swallows Kyungsoo up. At least he'll be warm.

Baekhyun goes back toward the rooms, and instead of entering his own, he pulls the master key out of his pocket and opens up his brother's. There's a thick layer of dust on the desk, and the bedding is stacked in the corner, blankets folded neatly on top of it. On the back of his brother's desk chair is a coat just like Baekhyun's, one size larger and smelling faintly of cigarette smoke, although the scent has faded since the last time Baekhyun had worn it.

It's been a really long time since Baekbeom's been around the guesthouse long enough to even use this jacket, let alone go out for a smoke in it. Baekhyun frowns.

"Just gonna borrow this, hyung," he mutters to the empty room. He looks around, at the bare walls and the spider's web growing at an odd angle between the desk leg and the floor, and breathes out. The heavy exhalation makes the dust rise, and Baekhyun sneezes. He sneezes again, once he's out of the room, and a third time as he locks the door. He shakes the coat out as he walks down to the end of the hall and turns the corner.

Kyungsoo's hands have found their way into the pockets of his borrowed coat. Baekhyun hopes he hasn't left anything weird in there. "Okay," Baekhyun says. "Let's go."

He grabs his backpack with one hand, and the water bottles in the main pocket bounce against each other as he adjusts the straps so they sit more comfortably on his shoulders. Then he gets the paper from his jeans, and tucks it into his inside pocket. Kyungsoo looks at him curiously, so Baekhyun flicks lightly at the coat Kyungsoo is wearing, right over his heart. "You've got one, too," he says, and Kyungsoo brings his hand up to check, but doesn't ask any further. Baekhyun sighs. "It's for the shrine."

Nodding, Kyungsoo slips into his sneakers, bending down to tie them tightly, using two elephant ears, like an elementary schooler.

They leave the guesthouse, Baekhyun guiding the way around to the back, where a path leads up further away from the village, half-collapsed _batdam_ on either side of them, and into the still green hills.

"Are there a lot of these trails?" Kyungsoo asks. "I noticed another couple, down in the village proper." Each step he takes is careful.

"The word around here for them is _olle_ ," says Baekhyun. "That's what the long ones for tourists are called, too: the Jeju Olle." He laughs "We have them all over the island, leading out to the roads. There's one from the front of the village that leads all the way out to the coastal highway."

"Do people not… drive locally?" Baekhyun decides he likes the way Kyungsoo speaks. It's sort of like he thinks about each and every word so carefully before he says it, and his consonants are so sharp in comparison to Baekhyun's soft lazy ones.

"We do," Baekhyun says. "But not for short distances. Walking is nice, and the buses between villages are pretty frequent. They'll take you most of the major places." He kicks at a bush that's grown out onto the path. The branches are on their way to being frozen, so they snap underfoot. "It's beautiful, anyway. Why would I want to drive quickly past it?"

He looks back over his shoulder, and watches as Kyungsoo uses his arm to balance on a rock as he climbs up a steeper part of the trail. Luckily, the ground is mostly dry, so Kyungsoo's feet aren't slipping. Baekhyun's used to the mucky winter trails, but Kyungsoo's probably much more used to climbing in and out of taxis than he is climbing hills.

He doesn't fuss, though. Baekhyun had known that he wouldn't, somehow, not like Chanyeol had, the first time Baekhyun had taken him hiking down by the cliffs. The cliffs, in Chanyeol's defense, are a harder challenge, but the hills walking in toward the center of the island look deceptively mild, more like ripples mimicking the surface of the ocean than real inclines.

When they reach the end of the agricultural fields, where the last of the summer crops have long been taken in and the rock walls give way to unfelled trees with vine-choked trunks, Baekhyun runs his hands up the bark of a camphor, winter rough under his palm. "We'll never cut these ones down," he says. "As kids, we used to think the adults never cut these trees down because the forest was haunted." He laughs. "Camphors repel spirits, you know? But the truth is simpler. They repel the bugs and the birds from the fields in the spring. They'll kill the insects if you burn the wood."

Kyungsoo reaches out too, running fingers along the tree trunk and looking at Baekhyun. The strings of his sweatshirt hood sway, sticking to his lips. "Haunted by what?"

"One of the big massacres during the Jeju uprising happened here," says Baekhyun. He ducks under a branch. "And these trees are high enough that in the winter, when the wind blows the hardest, the branches rub together. It sounds like screaming, kinda, at night. My friend Jongdae and I used to scare Soojung—she's a friend, too—by telling her if she came down this trail alone, the trees, possessed by the spirits of the dead villagers, would reach out and grab her, thinking she was their child." Baekhyun chuckles. "She still believes it, too, even if she pretends she doesn't. Jongdae's not afraid of anything, and he always wanted to come out here at night and see if there were really any ghosts."

Kyungsoo reaches out to touch another tree. "I like ghost stories."

"There are plenty of them around here for you," replies Baekhyun. "This island is full of ghosts." 

Baekhyun's grandmother had loved ghost stories.

"Is that why I'm shivering?"

"You're shivering because it's almost December," Baekhyun says, stepping over another branch. There's another field up ahead, cleared land and a few abandoned houses. One of them had belonged to a potter, back in the 1940s. Shards of handmade pots stick up like archeological artifacts up from the ground, and an old outdoor kiln made of stone has survived better than the house, which has one caved in wall and holes in the traditional thatched roof. "What made you come out here on the cusp of real winter? Did you think it'd be like Hawaii or something?"

"I'm not quite sure how I ended up here," Kyungsoo says. "I got dressed to go to work, and then I got in the car, and started driving south on the Gyeongbu Expressway." That explains the suit. "I already had the bag in my car, from a halfway cancelled trip to visit a friend last week that had been superseded by overtime at work, so I just stopped for gas, somewhere in Daegu, and just drove."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. When I got to Busan, I wasn't ready to stop driving. I wanted to keep going. So I..." Kyungsoo shivers, and pulls at the hood of his sweatshirt so it covers his ears again. "I bought a ticket for me and my car, and got on the ferry."

It sounds like something out of a drama. Baekhyun can remember hundreds of times, though, that he's wanted to just get on his scooter and drive away, all the way to Jeju-si, and get on the ferry going in the other direction. He can't. He belongs here, in Jeolbyeog-ri, and without him, there would be no one to take care of the guesthouse. "Must have been a pretty drive."

"I…" He's watching his feet, not Baekhyun, and he stutters slightly as he continues: "I don't remember much of it."

Something tells Baekhyun he should stop asking. "Well, don't forget anything you see here," he says. "Jejudo is too beautiful to forget." This field, the old potter's field, stretches out before them and in the distance, Baekhyun can make out the gamgyul grove that is just beginning its miniature tangerine season. They won't walk that way today, but maybe Kyungsoo would like to go there next week, when they start to get snow instead of rain. If he's still here, of course.

"I won't," says Kyungsoo, following Baekhyun's gaze to the grove. Baekhyun plucks at his coat to catch his attention, nodding that they have to cut back into the forest, through more _batdam_. "My mind is clearer now than it was when I was driving down here." He purses his mouth. "Would I get lost, if I tried to find this shrine by myself?"

"No." Baekhyun stops and gestures to a piece of wood stuck into the ground, which stretches up to his mid-thigh. "Look for the guides." The path is marked with thin wooden poles with white painted tops, though most of the paint, over the years, has worn away, and no one has bothered to repaint them. "My grandfather marked this trail," he says. "In the 1950s."

"Has your family always lived here?" For every step Baekhyun takes, Kyungsoo takes two. His cheeks are flushed, so Baekhyun slows his pace. 

"My mother's family," says Baekhyun. "They've spent generations in Jeolbyeog-ri, even before it was called Jeolbyeog-ri." He laughs. "So yeah, pretty much forever. Most of the history of this village is oral, and my family has always been a part of it. There's a legend—" He stops. "I'm rambling again."

"Yes," says Kyungsoo, "but this is more noteworthy than what you usually ramble about."

"What do I usually ramble about?" Here begins the incline, up between the thinning trees. The air smells strongly of camphor, here, like Baekhyun's grandmother's hands had always smelled. She used to burn the bark, in the summer, and mix the ashes with malojumdae to make a paste for the arthritis in her hands. _"It keeps away the fireflies."_

"I don't know," says Kyungsoo. "Usually I stop listening."

"You sound like Jongdae." Baekhyun frowns at him playfully, gently bumping him with his arm. "You'll get used to me."

"Will I?" asks Kyungsoo. A smile plays about his lips again as he looks up at the sky. "The weather's nice."

"For now," Baekhyun replies, looking up as well. "There are a few clouds, though, so let's hope they blow in the other direction." He drops his gaze back to Kyungsoo. "Are you getting tired?"

Kyungsoo licks his lips. "How far do we have left to go?" He looks tired, in Baekhyun's opinion. Baekhyun's not in great shape, but walking and climbing is part and parcel of living in the hills around here, and he's used to the terrain.

"Not _that_ far," Baekhyun prevaricates, holding out a hand to steady Kyungsoo as he trips over a tree root that has grown out into the path. "This is actually a pretty easy trail, just long, but we're coming up on a flat part."

Kyungsoo takes Baekhyun's hand and hauls himself up. He's stronger than Baekhyun expects, and he almost pulls him off balance. Then he lets go of Baekhyun's hand and straightens, looking around.

The trail widens here into a tiny section of level land, and Kyungsoo pauses to catch his breath. Baekhyun winks at him. "You were fooled by how flat it looks, weren't you?"

"The cliffs look much more difficult to navigate than this," says Kyungsoo. "And Seoul is built in the middle of the mountains. It's not like I'm unused to inclines."

"Jejudo was made from volcanoes," says Baekhyun. "The whole frickin' island was made from eruptions. You don't expect an island made of lava to really be tame, do you?"

"I wish I could expect it to be _warm_ ," Kyungsoo says. He rubs at his nose. "It's so cold, but everything is so alive. It's a trick."

"The grass grows even in the winter here. When we get a little higher, you'll be able to see the flowers."

"Flowers? In the winter?" The trail is even wider here, so they walk side by side. Their arms brush, the plastic of their coats squeaking together. Baekhyun studies Kyungsoo out of the corner of his eye as they trek. Kyungsoo's hands are in his pockets again, concealed from sight. Baekhyun flexes his own hand. He'd expected Kyungsoo's hands to be soft, but they are as rough as Baekhyun's own, and small enough that Baekhyun had been able to curl his fingers all the way around.

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "Must be the mountain spirits that make them grow." He grins, and Kyungsoo blinks at him. "Don't give me that look. Who do you think the shrines out here are for?"

"I never really thought about it," Kyungsoo says. "I mean, it's not like there aren't still shamans and stuff around, but it's not…"

"Most of it was destroyed, yeah?" Baekhyun shrugs. "My grandmother said there are more shamans than you'd think, still, but it's nothing like Jeju."

"I saw a Buddhist temple, on my drive out here."

"Jeju is… well, we've always been stubborn about change." Baekhyun laughs. "We keep a lot of old traditions here." He shivers at a particularly strong gust of wind. "We build our houses low and stone walls around them to protect us, we eat millet and buckwheat and barley with our breakfast even though we can buy rice from the store. Stuff like that. So Buddhism got added on. It didn't replace _mugyo_ , not really."

He pulls on his backpack, slipping it off one arm and pulling until it comes around in front of him. He unzips the main pocket and pulls out a couple of tangerines - from the grove they'd seen a few minutes ago, actually - nicking the skin of one of them with his fingernail so it'll be easier for Kyungsoo, with his bitten down nails, to peel, and then handing it to his companion.

Kyungsoo takes it, holding it in his left hand and picking at the skin with the other.

"So even after Confucianism and Buddhism and all that came around, lots of people kept leaving gifts for the spirits. After all," he peels a long strip of orange skin away from his tangerine, "we wouldn't want them to get angry at us and tell Yeongdeung to send stronger winds."

The wind whips at their faces as soon as he finishes the sentence, and Baekhyun laughs, settling the weight of his backpack evenly on both shoulders. 

"So this is the wind… when the spirits aren't angry?"

"Exactly," Baekhyun says. "A gentle breeze." He turns to look directly at Kyungsoo, and he's finally gotten his fruit peeled.

"Who is Yeongdeung?" Kyungsoo is carefully pulling the tangerine apart into halves as he speaks.

"The wind goddess of Jejudo," Baekhyun says. "We have a festival, in February, when she's here on the island. That's when the winds are the strongest, so we have a ritual, in order to protect the fishermen and the divers from her and the Dragon King." He pops a slice of tangerine into his mouth. The juice is sweet, but it stings his chapped lips. "That's how we safeguard the health of the ocean _and_ the people who fish in it."

Kyungsoo eats like a hedgehog, too, nibbling at his tangerine whenever he thinks Baekhyun isn't looking. Eventually, in a hurry to plunge his hands back into his pockets, he pushes the other half of the fruit all at once into his mouth, puffing out his cheeks as he chews. "Is it windy all year round?"

"Well, you know what they say about this island, don't you?" Baekhyun says. "We have a wealth of three things: women, rocks, and wind." Kyungsoo's eyes crinkle up, lips twitching again, and Baekhyun has a brief flash of satisfaction at the relaxed line of his brow. "But I'll admit it's much windier in the winter than any other time of year."

"Still the same amount of rocks and women, though? Or do those, too, multiply when it's colder?" 

"If you keep making jokes, I'll think there's a sense of humor buried somewhere behind those intimidating faces you make." Kyungsoo trips over a wooden step, really just two logs dug into the earth to make the climb a little easier when the ground is wet at this steep part, but he catches himself this time, one hand on a tree and the other on his knee. He glares at the step, and Baekhyun laughs at him. "My heart is aflutter."

"There isn't," Kyungsoo says. "Don't get your hopes up." Baekhyun laughs again, unfazed by Kyungsoo's bluster now, and keeps leading the way. 

For a few minutes, they hike in quiet, until the wind blows hard enough that the tree branches rub together. "That's the sound," Baekhyun says, "that scares all the kids."

"It sounds more like singing than screaming," says Kyungsoo.

Baekhyun looks at him dubiously, rubbing his cheeks as he stares at Kyungsoo. The wind has definitely chapped them. He should have rubbed a thick layer of lotion over his face before he left the house to protect his skin, but it's too late now. It doesn't really matter, since only Jongdae's mom will mention it. "What kind of singing are you listening to?"

"Better than that crap you had blaring out of your headphones the other day." He trips, over rock, and falls to his knees. "Are there spirits of trashy pop music lurking out here too?"

"Careful there, city boy," Baekhyun says, and he laughs as Kyungsoo picks himself up and rubs at the mud on his knees. "Don't hurt yourself."

"I'm going to hurt _you_ ," Kyungsoo says. "An easy hike, my ass."

"We're almost there," Baekhyun says, helplessly amused. Kyungsoo's face is flushed, and his hood has fallen back to reveal sweaty hair. The wind is blowing harshly, and Baekhyun is in that strange place between cold and hot, where his nose feels like it'll fall off from the cold and his chest feels like it's on fire from exertion. "There's a great view just past the shrine, so it's worth it."

The trail peters out as they start to dip downward again, an easy declining slope. The trees thin as the ground beneath them turns more to grass. There is a smattering of chamomile blossoms: it's not quite the season for them, but sometimes the seeds blow from the inland farms and the flowers grow anyway, if the soil is right. Baekhyun swoops down and catches a couple with slightly spread fingers, and offers the palm full of blooms to Kyungsoo. 

"What's that?"

"Chamomile," Baekhyun says. "Have you never seen it? _City boys_."

"Have you ever seen Namsan Tower, then?" replies Kyungsoo, with an arched eyebrow. " _Country boys_."

Smiling, Baekhyun waves him off. "I've almost never left Jejudo, except when I did my service. Even then, I was in the navy. Most of my time was spent seeing the lower deck of ships," he says. "I'd like to see Namsan Tower, though. Someday."

"It's a different kind of lovely from this, but you can see the entire city." 

Up ahead, Baekhyun spots the halmang-dang, a thick tree growing out from its bed of rock. The tree, decorated in hanging strings filled with colorful strips of cloth, has grown more twisted since Baekhyun's last visit, the branches sprawling out further than they used to. Underfoot, the earth has become stone. 

Baekhyun remembers being so young and coming to this shrine for the first time with his hand clasped carefully in his grandmother's. Back then, the stone altar had risen almost to his waist instead of just past his knees, and when he'd bowed to the goddess, he'd wished for impossible things, instead of the small ones that he was supposed to. "This is a shrine dedicated to Jeolbyeog-ri's local goddess." 

"How many gods are there on Jeju?" Kyungsoo asks. "Yeongdeung, the Dragon King..."

"The Dragon King's wife protects the haenyeo," Baekhyun says. He pulls his bag around to the front of himself again as they approach, and pulls out two more gamgyul, and an apple, setting them on the naturally formed altar of tilted stone. The colorful ribbons of fabric blow and the branches of the goddess tree growing out from the rockbed whistle like the divers coming up for air. "Beyond that? A lot." He moves closer. "Almost every village has their own, although some villages share."

"It feels like everything here is stuck in time," says Kyungsoo. "Like stepping a hundred years into the past."

"We're not," Baekhyun says. "We've just brought a hundred years ago with us into the present."

Kyungsoo blinks at him, and Baekhyun wants to laugh, remembering Jongdae likening his eyes to serving platters. "I wish I knew more about this kind of thing. But I…"

"Well, you don't hear it every day, most likely." He remembers Kyungsoo's silk suit, on the night he checked in, and his slicked back hair. "I get the feeling your life has been a lot different to mine."

"Probably," says Kyungsoo. "How often do people come up here?"

"These days?" Baekhyun tugs on his hat, pulling it back down over his ears. It feels like December's come early. "Not that often. It's mostly older people, now."

Kyungsoo drops down to investigate the stone altar in front of the tree. Someone had left eggs there, recently, and it's only thanks to the winter air that they haven't gone rotten. One has fallen from the altar and down to the ground, cracked, white spilling out around it and chilled to a thick clear jelly. By tomorrow, it'll resemble glass. 

"You're supposed to come and say your prayers before the sun comes up," says Baekhyun, rubbing again at his nose. "After that, she isn't here, she's out around the area, looking over things, you know? But it can be dangerous to climb these hills in the dark, unless you've memorized every rut and rock."

Kyungsoo looks up at Baekhyun, tongue peeking out to wet his lips. "I think we're late for leaving prayers, then," Kyungsoo says, "as it's probably much closer to sunset than it is to sunrise right now."

Baekhyun takes off his backpack and sets it down at his feet. The wind rustles the cloth and branches again, red, pink and blue. "We still can," he says. He takes the paper he'd tucked into his pocket and pulled it out. "You just have to leave it for her, so she can check it out later."

"Do goddesses have voice mail?" Kyungsoo asks, taking out his own piece of paper and eying it speculatively, then clutching it tighter as the wind tries to blow it out of his hands. "Why did you give me this, exactly?"

"That's all your worries from today so far," Baekhyun says. "You carried the paper up here against your heart, and it absorbed them all as we hiked."

"Is ‘worries' a metaphor for sweat?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun wags his finger remonstratively.

"We leave the paper here for the goddess of this shrine," he takes it from Kyungsoo's hold, and wedges it with his own between tree trunk and rock, with a few similar sheets, "and then she takes care of it when she comes back."

"Ah," Kyungsoo stares at his paper, and Baekhyun's. The expression on his face is one that Baekhyun can't figure out, but his eyebrows are furrowed with consternation and his mouth tightens. 

"There aren't too many villages left like this one," Baekhyun says. "With old buildings, and the uldam and batdam still standing. Most of them were burned, back when Jeju was occupied." Baekhyun tugs again at his hat. Kyungsoo looks cold, and he should have given his guest a hat, too. He hopes Kyungsoo doesn't catch a headcold. "The older generation of this village prayed for that salvation, so even if it seems silly, it's a comfort to continue the tradition."

"It's still intriguing." Hands are back in pockets again. "You're like an experienced tour guide."

"I wanted to teach this stuff," Baekhyun says, before he thinks better of it. It's not something he talks about. Pipe dreams are better left unmentioned, in the back of his closet with his old uniform and the love letters he never really got up the nerve to leave in Kim Taeyeon's shoe locker. One day, his closet is going to be too full to hold any more dreams that Baekhyun's given up on.

"What?" Kyungsoo's voice has gone rough. Definitely in danger of a headcold. 

"I wanted to go to teachers' college," Baekhyun says, lightly. "Or maybe get a graduate degree in history. Maybe become a professor or something. Since getting a degree in Starcraft isn't really possible." He vigorously pats his cheeks to warm them as Kyungsoo tries to look through him or something. It's unnerving, sometimes, the way Kyungsoo stares. Baekhyun makes sure his tone stays carefree. "Only I was never really good at school, and teachers' college is really selective. Some of the hardest exams, and there's no way around something like that." He swallows. "I have to stay here anyway. So I guess I'll settle for teaching you."

"Do you believe in all of this?" Kyungsoo gestures to the halmang-dang, to the cracked egg, to the tree with its tiny cache of folded blank white paper. "The prayers and stuff?"

Baekhyun laughs, hefting his backpack over one shoulder. "It's a part of Jeju," he says, finally. "Does it matter?"

"That's all?" Kyungsoo says. "You trust a piece of paper that will probably blow away with all your hopes?" He pushes a hand through his hair, fingers peeking out from the sleeve of Baekhyun's coat.

"Well," says Baekhyun, looking back at the tree, "despite the wind, none of the others have blown away." The wind chooses that moment to gust ferociously, sending Baekhyun's hair into his eyes. When it calms, another egg has fallen from the stone altar. All of the white paper remains. "That's a little magical, isn't it?"

Kyungsoo's lips tighten at the corners, curling down, and he looks again at the paper folded and placed with Baekhyun's. Then he turns away. "I can easily imagine you as a history professor," he says. "You seem like the type who'd love to have a rapt audience to listen to you jabber on for hours, unable to stop you or talk back."

Baekhyun snorts, and bumps Kyungsoo with his elbow before he thinks it through. Guiltily, he starts to apologize, but Kyungsoo just smiles at him, and Baekhyun figures that means he hadn't minded. "I wanted to be different," he says. "I wanted to be the sort of teacher who wouldn't find a student like me unteachable." Pushing his luck, he grabs at Kyungsoo's sleeve. "We can go up a little higher," he says. "There's a great view of the village."

Picking up his bag, Baekhyun leads Kyungsoo past the shrine, up a final crest, until they're overlooking everything. Yixing had loved sitting here and eating tangerines, one after another. Sometimes, he used to hike up here with his guitar, and Baekhyun would come along, humming the tunes to Chinese pop melodies only half-remembered.

From the top, there's nothing to protect them from the wind, but they can also see straight out, all the way to the coast.

"So what do you think?"

Kyungsoo grins, the first true full one Baekhyun's seen from him. His mouth forms a heart, when he smiles, and Baekhyun had thought Kyungsoo was a good looking guy before, but now he knows that's a total understatement.

"I can see the guest house," he says. "And the ponies." He sneezes, and Baekhyun sighs, reaching out and tugging Kyungsoo closer by his sweatshirt hood. Kyungsoo's smile drops as he looks up at Baekhyun in surprise. Pulling the hood up over Kyungsoo's hair, Baekhyun smoothes his hand over the fabric and pulls at the strings, cinching it, before tying a loose bow under Kyungsoo's chin. 

"Your ears looked cold," he says, brushing off the odd tightening in his stomach as he steps back.

Kyungsoo's giving him that bemused look again, and then another brilliant smile. "Thank you," he says, "for the view. Not for the hood. Do that again and I'll break your fingers."

"You're teasing me, aren't you?" Baekhyun turns to look out across his village: quiet, unassuming Jeolbyeog-ri. He can make out Kim Taeyeon's house from here, and holds out one hand and pretends to pick it up. When he opens that hand, though, it's naturally empty. Baekhyun is only pretending to be larger than life, up here.

"Maybe I'm teasing you," says Kyungsoo. "Or maybe I really do break bones. Want to take the chance?"

"Always," Baekhyun replies. "I like to live dangerously."

"Is that another Jeju thing?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun gives him his broadest smile. 

"No," he says. "That's just a Baekhyun thing." He makes a ‘V' with both of his hands, and bends the fingers, like bunny ears. "Buing buing."

"Disgusting," Kyungsoo says, but he's still smiling.

The hike down the mountain is easier than the hike up. Kyungsoo's face is softer, under the late afternoon sun, and his steps are steadier as they wind down the path.

"We should go to Jongdae's mom's restaurant," Baekhyun says, when Kyungsoo stops to pick up his own small handful of chamomile. His face is so relaxed. Baekhyun hadn't realized how tight the skin around Kyungsoo's eyes was until it, well, wasn't. "It's black pig samgyeopsal."

"I'd like that," Kyungsoo says, closing his hand around the small yellow-beige blossoms and putting his hand back into his pocket. "The ticket collector at the ferry said Jejudo was famous for seafood and black pig, and I'd have to try both."

"Smart guy," says Baekhyun. "We can get fresh shellfish at some point, if you'd like to try it."

"Don't you have other things to do besides entertain me?"

Baekhyun kicks at a loose stone. They're already back down as far as the potter's house, on flat ground, so it doesn't roll very far. "Life around here is very sleepy, for me. I just take care of the guesthouse, and help out at the restaurant when it's busy. Other than that, I'm left to my own devices a lot."

"So I'm helping you be less bored?" Kyungsoo is looking up, at the branches above them, at the treetops that obscure the cloudy winter sky.

Baekhyun studies Kyungsoo's profile. His heavy brows and full, soft mouth. "Something like that," he says. "More like less aimless."

Kyungsoo is silent for a few moments, and Baekhyun kicks another stray rock. 

"Well," Kyungsoo says, finally, "seeing as I am finding myself with more free time than I've ever had in my life, I guess I'm glad to have a tour guide."

"You guess?" Baekhyun gives into temptation and bumps his arm into Kyungsoo's. "Anyone would be lucky to have me as a tour guide."

"I think that correlates directly with how much you like white noise from the television," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun lightly slaps his arm. He's beginning to figure out Kyungsoo's sense of humor, and he finds that he likes it. It's different from the way Jongdae or Chanyeol tease him. It feels rougher, somehow, like Kyungsoo isn't used to teasing people.

"You're going to get along way too well with Jongdae," he says. "Maybe we shouldn't get black pig at all."

They walk for a little while in almost silence, just Baekhyun singing under his breath as they walk. "Baekhyun?" Kyungsoo says, suddenly, and Baekhyun turns to look at him. "Thank you. For the shrine."

"You're welcome," says Baekhyun, winking at Kyungsoo playfully. "Anything for my favorite guest." 

"You're so familiar with me," Kyungsoo says, thoughtfully. "We're almost strangers."

"No, we've gone on an adventure together." Baekhyun grins. "That means we're already friends."

"I see," says Kyungsoo, lips doing a slow upward curl. "You're very..."

"Friendly?" Baekhyun prompts.

"Forward," counters Kyungsoo. "I'm surprised, but I… I don't hate it."

"Good," says Baekhyun, "because I've been this way so long that I don't know how to be any other way."

Making friends is his survival technique, after all. It's easier to avoid being lonely if you can surround yourself with people.

⚘❁⚘

Back at the guesthouse, Baekhyun rinses his face and hands in the bathroom sink, drying off stinging cheeks as he stares at himself in the mirror. He feels inexplicably light right now, despite the burn of exertion in his thighs and the dried sweat on the back of his neck.

Kyungsoo has switched from jeans to black athletic pants, Baekhyun notices, when he walks into the kitchen to find the other man drinking a glass of water poured from the bottle. Sunset's light shines through the window, onto the counter, and makes the water sparkle in the glass like a commercial when Kyungsoo sets it down and pushes at the sleeves of his sweatshirt. Baekhyun's coat, the one Kyungsoo had borrowed, hangs over the back of the chair.

"No one would have cared if you wore the muddy jeans," says Baekhyun, watching as Kyungsoo tries to tame his hair, using both hands to push the bangs back from his forehead. It's really a soft floppy mess when it's not slicked back from his face, and Baekhyun wants to mess it up. "It's obvious we've been hiking."

"It was uncomfortable," Kyungsoo says. "Sticking to my skin." His lips are super chapped from the walk, and his nose is still red. "Don't worry, didn't change for you."

"You're not dressing up for our first date?" Baekhyun slinks closer, opening the refrigerator and pulling out a tiny bottle of Vita500, opening it with the slight crack of the metal cap separating from the safety seal. "Wow, after that great friendship-forging adventure we had, too. I'm disappointed."

Kyungsoo gives him a long stare, and Baekhyun knows he's won again at the twitch of Kyungsoo's lips. "Sorry," Kyungsoo says, "I don't go for the noisy type."

Baekhyun takes a long sip of his drink, finishing half of it, then licks the corners of his mouth to catch more of the orangey taste. "I thought we were starting something special."

Kyungsoo turns on the faucet, rinsing his glass. He rubs his thumb around the rim, to clean where his lips touched, and sets it on the spread out dishcloth next to the sink. "I'm a taken man."

"Oh?" Baekhyun finishes his drink, and then drops the brown glass bottle into the recycling bag. "You married or something?" He can't really imagine it, but for all his lofty claims of friendship he doesn't know much of anything about Kyungsoo at all beyond his name and the make of his car.

Kyungsoo dries his hands on his tracksuit. "Yes," he says, picking up the coat on the back of the chair and putting it back on. The black collar of it sits just under his ears, brushing the lobes. "To my job. For better or for worse." There's a touch of bitterness in his voice. Maybe Baekhyun's just imagining it.

Baekhyun chuckles, reaching into his pocket to grab the spare knit hat he'd grabbed from the pile of them on the floor in his closet. He holds it out, and Kyungsoo looks at it blankly for a moment before taking it, his fingers brushing Baekhyun's as he digs them into woolen yarn. 

"Me too, sorta," Baekhyun says, gesturing around them. "Married to this guesthouse, and married to this village, I guess."

Kyungsoo puts the hat on, covering up his adorable ears, and Baekhyun laughs at the way the edge sits too low on Kyungsoo's brow. Shaking his head, Baekhyun steps into Kyungsoo's personal space, giving Kyungsoo the chance to stop him before he reaches up and folds up the edge of the hat. 

Kyungsoo's hair is as soft as it had looked, before, and the skin of his forehead is smooth and warm. As he folds the hat up in the back, his knuckles brush the nape of Kyungsoo's neck, and Kyungsoo freezes, before forcibly relaxing. Baekhyun can hear his breath hitch. Kyungsoo is staring at his face, Baekhyun can tell, but he keeps his eyes on what he's doing, making sure his fold is even because Kyungsoo seems like the type who cares about things like that.

"You're very touchy, too," Kyungsoo says. His breath his hot on Baekhyun's chin, and Baekhyun realizes he's standing way too close, even for his standards. "Not just forward, but forward and _touchy_. Do you have a fetish for dressing people?"

"I know," says Baekhyun. "If it bothers you, you can let me know." He drops his hands, and steps back to admire his work. Kyungsoo's hair clings to his cheeks where it peeks out from under the hat. "I don't know why I feel so comfortable around you."

Baekhyun thinks it's because Kyungsoo is so calm. There's something steady about him, and the way he banters with Baekhyun has Baekhyun falling into the patterns he has with Jongdae and Chanyeol.

"It's not that it bothers me," says Kyungsoo, reaching up to rub his neck before zipping up his coat, eyes still trained on Baekhyun like he might step into his personal space and pet him again. "I just don't make new friends that often, and I spend most of my time at work, where that kind of thing would be inappropriate."

"I don't meet a lot of strangers," Baekhyun says. "Must be why I want them to be friends so quickly when I do. So I know how to treat them."

"Hmm," Kyungsoo says, touching the new fold in the hat tentatively. "It doesn't bother me."

"That's good," Baekhyun says, zipping his own borrowed coat back up. He walks toward the door, expecting Kyungsoo to follow him.

"I don't know what I was expecting," Kyungsoo says, "when I chose to stay out here. But it definitely wasn't you." Baekhyun looks over his shoulder, but Kyungsoo doesn't seem like he's going to say anything else on the subject. Baekhyun slides into his muddy sneakers, and Kyungsoo does the same, following him out of the guesthouse. "You never lock the door." 

"I don't have to," Baekhyun says. "This place isn't even in the village, but most people in the village don't either." He shrugs. "The individual doors lock, to the rooms. That's enough."

"Why isn't the guesthouse closer to everything else?" 

"I don't know," Baekhyun replies, starting down the familiar trail that leads into the village. "Maybe whichever of my ancestors built the place didn't like people. Maybe they liked the quiet and isolation."

"I guess that wasn't genetic," says Kyungsoo.

"Not really," Baekhyun agrees easily, rolling his shoulders back in an abbreviated stretch. "I love people, for the most part." 

"I can tell," says Kyungsoo. Baekhyun waits for more, but nothing is forthcoming. Baekhyun wonders if conversations with Kyungsoo are always going to feel so unfinished, like there are words that got stolen by the wind before Kyungsoo could say them.

The night is chilly, but the lower they get, the less harsh the air. Kyungsoo is keeping pace with him, this time, and he looks significantly less cold with the hat.

As antsy as it makes Baekhyun, to walk without saying anything, Kyungsoo seems perfectly content. Baekhyun starts to whistle again, to fill the silence. He thinks Kyungsoo might be laughing at him, but in the winter, days are shorter, so in the fading light it's hard for Baekhyun to see. He'd like to think he is, though, maybe with one of those big pretty smiles.

⚘❁⚘

Jongdae's mom's restaurant is near the center of the village. Baekhyun could walk to it in his sleep, having trod the path between the guesthouse and there so many times he's surprised his footprints aren't embedded in the street, indentations in the asphalt that slowly get larger to show the growth of Baekhyun's feet. 

"This is the place," he says, abruptly turning. He grabs Kyungsoo's arm to jerk him along, and Kyungsoo stumbles a bit, his feet already continuing forward as Baekhyun pulls his body sideways. "Mom, I'm here!" 

Baekhyun steps into the entryway and slips out of his shoes, making sure Kyungsoo follows suit before continuing inside. They walk in socked feet across the rough wooden floor, back to Baekhyun's favorite table, where the familiar figure of Soojung sits. The restaurant lights are already on, two oversized swinging lamps with the same old light bulbs Baekhyun uses at the guesthouse, even though it's only dusk, and two grills are going over in the left corner of the restaurant, a group of elderly men. There are a half dozen gamgyul peels littering the table, and it lends a slight citrus to the smell of grilling pork fat.

It's Jongdae, and not his mother, who peeks around from the kitchen. "Stop trying to steal my mom and sit down, Baekhyun," he says with a grin. "Soojung told me you'd show up today, but I didn't believe her, since you've been playing ghost at mealtimes. We've missed your thrice weekly visits." He turns to Kyungsoo, and blinks in surprise. "You brought your guest?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "I thought he'd earned pork belly today."

"Didn't think you were planning to bring him around." Then Jongdae's gone again, back into the kitchen.

"That's my usual table," says Baekhyun to Kyungsoo.

"You have a usual table? Do you eat here that much?" Kyungsoo asks, pulling off his hat as the heat starts to set in. It's always hot when the grills are on, even if it's just a couple of them, since the place isn't that big. 

"I practically grew up in here." Baekhyun peels off his coat and throws it on the ground on the opposite side of the table from Soojung, who smiles up at him in greeting. "Long time no see, Soojung," he jokes, and she narrows her eyes.

"What oppa means by ‘grew up in here' is that he almost ate the Kims out of business," says Soojung. She sits with her legs folded neatly beneath her at the table, one elbow on the table. "All the food he ate went into his feet, and that's why he wears clown shoes."

Baekhyun unceremoniously plops himself down at the table, stretching his legs out under it, avoiding the grill mechanisms with a practiced ease. He smiles at Soojung, then turns to watch Kyungsoo kneel down, carefully fold his borrowed coat, and then arrange himself into a folded cross legged position, as neat as you please. He looks uncomfortable, and Baekhyun wonders how often Kyungsoo comes to places like this back in Seoul. 

"This is Do Kyungsoo." Baekhyun nudges Kyungsoo with his shoulder, and Kyungsoo does a sort of partial bow in place, like they're at a business meeting instead of at Jongdae's mom's neighborhood restaurant.

"Nice to meet you, Do-ssi." Soojung tosses her hair over her shoulder and offers him a small smile. "I'm Soojung. I see that Baekhyun hasn't talked you to death yet." She taps her chin. "He said you were quiet, so I feared he would manage it, but it's good to see he hasn't."

"Not for lack of trying," Kyungsoo replies, almost robotically, and Baekhyun crosses his arms, leaning back against the wall behind them, eying Kyungsoo carefully. "And it's Kyungsoo."

"It's not my fault that I'm bursting with so many wonderful things to say." Baekhyun wriggles in place, trying to both take the attention off Kyungsoo, and get comfortable on the thin cushion he's seated on. He pulls his legs in, and leans forward, resting his weight on both elbows. 

"When I was in the second grade," says Soojung to Kyungsoo, "Baekhyun-oppa was in the fourth grade, and he used to always have to stand outside in the hallway between his classroom and mine, with his hands holding a ruler up in the air, because he got sent out by his teacher for talking during lessons."

"That is the least surprising thing I have heard today," says Kyungsoo, and Soojung laughs, quietly but genuinely. 

"Oh," she says, "I like you. You'll fit right in."

Kyungsoo gives her a small smile, running a hand through his hair, and Soojung raises an eyebrow. She thinks Kyungsoo is attractive, Baekhyun can tell - he's always been able to tell with her because she defrosts, her smile softer around the edges and her posture going less stiff. 

Back when he and Jongdae had both liked her, that's the way she'd looked at Kim Minseok, and it had always made his stomach ache like someone was squeezing it in a balled up fist, or sometimes like he'd drunk milk just on the edge of going bad. 

Now, of course, Soojung is definitely more like a sister than a crush. He doesn't care what kind of guys she likes. But there's a tiny thread of something possessive threading up through his chest, like Kyungsoo is _his_ guest, which is silly because Kyungsoo is just a guy staying at Baekhyun's guesthouse, even if he is a lot more exciting than the guests Baekhyun usually has, during those longer summer months.

Baekhyun looks down at the table, his mouth dry. 

"She had it in for me," says Baekhyun, scratching at the tabletop with a long nail. "I didn't even talk that much in her class." Baekhyun had been ten, maybe, and he'd just started to make friends. He'd been quiet the year before, that first year, and none of the other kids had paid much attention to him after the first couple of thrilling weeks of a new student in a nowhere place like this. "It wasn't my fault her lessons were boring."

"She was kind of boring," says Jongdae, and Baekhyun looks up as Jongdae seems to collapse into the space next to Soojung, setting a huge tray of side dishes on the table with a sigh. "I think I must have taken more naps in fourth grade than every other year without Baekhyun constantly kicking my chair like the annoying little shit he is." He hands out moist towelettes to them all, to clean their hands, and Baekhyun sets his aside after he's used it, knowing he'll need it again.

"See? I was doing our teacher a favor, keeping Jongdae awake." He and Jongdae share a conspiratorial grin, and whatever weirdness Baekhyun had been feeling fades in the wake of Jongdae's easy smile. "Long day?"

"Not really," says Jongdae, moving the side dishes from the tray to the table. Baekhyun immediately takes four sets of chopsticks out of the container on the edge of the table and passes them around. "Not a ton of customers here. Soojung and I helped her mom pick tangerines today. I brought home a basket of them but they got demolished pretty quickly." He tilts his head back toward the table Baekhyun had noticed when he walked in. Two old men are bickering over the last piece of pork. "It's not like there's any shortage of them, so no big deal. I'll pick more later."

Leaning forward, Jongdae starts the grill, turning the gas beneath halfway to high so that it can start to heat up the surface. Then he picks up a kimchi radish with his fingers and eats it. Baekhyun follows suit, and Soojung looks at them both with disgust that Baekhyun is used to disregarding.

"There are way more than my aunt and uncle can pick this year," Soojung says. "If you have time, Kyungsoo-ssi, see if you can drag Baekhyun-oppa's lazy ass out there to pick some. I think Jongdae-oppa's used up his usefulness for the week."

"I will," Kyungsoo says. He's uncomfortable again, like he'd been when he first sat down. He grabs an anchovy with his chopsticks and eats it, and Baekhyun considers Kyungsoo's variable mood.

It could be how quickly Baekhyun and Soojung and Jongdae always talk, words stumbling over each other in their haste to one-up. The familiar rhythms of conversation come naturally to them, but it's more than enough to drown out someone quiet like Kyungsoo.

Surreptitiously, Baekhyun leans into Kyungsoo, letting just a little bit of his weight rest against him. "Too loud?" he whispers into Kyungsoo's ear, as Jongdae and Soojung argue over whether or not Jongdae is lazy, and Kyungsoo shivers, but doesn't really move away.

"Not really," Kyungsoo murmurs back, reaching out to prod a side dish plate into place, a little straighter. "It's just… It's different to what I'm used to."

Baekhyun chuckles, resting his elbows back on the wooden surface. "By the way, Jongdae," he says, raising his voice and interrupting the spat across the table, "I forgot to introduce you. This is Do Kyungsoo."

"I'm Kim Jongdae." Jongdae tilts his head to the side. "I saw you walking around the village the day after you got here, looking for signal on your phone."

"Baekhyun's… mentioned you," Kyungsoo says. His hands have wormed his way into the sleeves of his sweatshirt, and Baekhyun should stop staring at Kyungsoo, but he's fascinating, with all his strange little quirks and impassive facial expressions.

"Does Baekhyunnie talk about me a lot? How sweet."

Baekhyun snorts, eating a piece of tofu, which falls apart halfway to his mouth and he has to catch in his cupped hand and lick off his palm. Soojung rolls her eyes at him, and mouths _animal._ Baekhyun grins at her unrepentantly.

"Nothing he's said about you is sweet," Kyungsoo smoothly responds, and Jongdae sputters with surprise as Baekhyun delights in the devious twinkle in Kyungsoo's eyes. That's Kyungsoo from earlier today, at the zenith of their hike. "Except for the fact that we both think he talks too much."

Picking up her chopsticks and plucking a few bean sprouts, Soojung nods. "Well, that's just stating the obvious."

"Haha," says Baekhyun. "Kyungsoo's been at it all day, so there's no need to gang up on me." He has better luck with the potato than he'd had with the tofu, and it makes it to his mouth in one piece.

Jongdae goes back the kitchen and comes back with a tray of lettuce leaves and genip, shot glasses, and a plate piled high with enough pork that he has to hold the tray with both hands, as well as tongs and a pair of scissors. He has two bottles of soju tucked under his arm that Soojung takes from him and puts on the table out of his way as he carefully sets down the tray. 

"So, Do Kyungsoo, what brings you to Jeolbyeog-ri?" he asks, as he lays the pork belly cuts across the grill. Baekhyun uses his chopsticks to move them into an elaborate arrangement to maximize the amount grilling at once. 

"Nothing interesting," Kyungsoo says, straightening the side dishes in front of him so they form a line. He looks at the ones in front of Baekhyun, too, and Baekhyun waits to see if Kyungsoo wants them straight enough to lean across him to fix them. He doesn't. "Just ended up here."

"Baekhyun's attention span is about forty seconds, so _you_ , at least, must be somewhat interesting."

"I'm not sure about that," Kyungsoo replies, stabbing a piece of kimchi with his chopsticks and bringing it up to his mouth. "I just wanted a break from Seoul." And there it is: that hedgehog thing Kyungsoo does whenever a question edges too personal. 

"My attention span is not that short," Baekhyun says quickly, keeping an eye on Kyungsoo. The way he chews is so cute. Baekhyun's hat had left Kyungsoo's hair full of static, and his habit of tugging fingers through his hair has only made it worse. The strands in front of his ears are slightly damp with sweat now. He looks boyish and disheveled, tonight, and Baekhyun thinks it suits him. "How old are you even, Kyungsoo?"

Kyungsoo picks up the metal tongs from the table and flips the meat. His hands are steady, and maybe Baekhyun was wrong, about how often he does things like this. "Old enough for you to pour me a shot of soju," Kyungsoo says, and Jongdae laughs. "So don't worry about it."

"He's just wondering who should be doing the pouring," Jongdae explains. Jongdae snips a piece of meat from the edge of one long cut with scissors, a small one, and nibbles at it. "Almost," he says.

"I'm probably still the youngest. I don't know why I even hang out with you guys." Soojung is looking at Kyungsoo again, not staring, just looking every once in a while. Jongdae notices, and frowns, twisting a piece of her hair around his middle finger and lightly pulling. She turns to glare at him, but then smiles: a tiny one that Baekhyun can't decipher. 

Disconcerted, Baekhyun bites down on his lower lip, and reaches out to pull up the sleeve of Kyungsoo's sweatshirt, which is getting in his way as he uses the tongs. He tugs until the cuff is behind Kyungsoo's elbow, and then lets go, picking up his chopsticks again as Kyungsoo fixes on him with an unreadable gaze. His hand has stilled with the tongs, like he needs a moment to process that touch, and Soojung gives Baekhyun a fleeting curious look.

"Because you never have to pay for anything," Baekhyun says. "I'm on to your game, Soojung." He folds his hands together and smiles back at her.

"You never pay for anything, either," says Soojung. "You always push the responsibility onto Minseok-oppa or Jongdae-oppa."

"It's revenge," Baekhyun says, "for how many months I had to wait to buy liquor."

"It's been five years," says Jongdae, whining. "Let it go."

"So," Soojung says, "how old are you, Kyungsoo-ssi?"

"Twenty-four," he says. His sweatshirt sleeve slides again, down the smooth pale line of his forearm, and Kyungsoo pushes it up again on his own this time, catching his lower lip between his teeth.

"Twenty-four," Baekhyun repeats. "Right in the middle." Kyungsoo looks twenty-four, tonight. Not like the night he'd arrived, five days ago, with his silk suit and glasses and stress like tiny weights at the corners of his mouth. Years have lifted from his narrow shoulders.

"Damn," says Soojung, picking up the soju bottle. "He's got me by one year." She twists the cap off, and Baekhyun unstacks the shot glasses in front of her so she can fill them before she passes them around. "Another oppa."

"At least you're old enough to drink with us now, kiddo," Jongdae teases, and Soojung gives him one of her best wintery glares. 

"I don't know why I miss you, when I'm away at school," she says.

"You don't live here?" asks Kyungsoo. His eyes flick up, quickly, to look at her.

"Not anymore," Soojung says, pushes a soju glass over to Jongdae as Baekhyun does the same for Kyungsoo, going under Kyungsoo's arms as he cuts the meat in even pieces with the scissors like a pro. "I have an apartment in Seogwipo-si, near the university. But my parents still live here. I come back once a month."

"Pretty soon, she won't come back," says Baekhyun. "Even to visit. Sooyeon almost never comes back."

"I'm not Baekbeom-oppa," Soojung says, almost sharp, and Baekhyun licks his lips.

Kyungsoo's gaze flicks to Baekhyun, and Baekhyun smiles. "Do most people our age leave?" he asks, still looking at Baekhyun. Baekhyun curls a hand around his own knee.

"Yeah," Jongdae answers. "There are only a few of us left around here, now. Back in our parents' generation, everyone just followed their family into a trade, like diving or fishing or farming, stuff like that. But now most people go away, to college, and they don't come back except on holidays or to visit their parents."

Baekhyun thinks about the welcome desk at the guesthouse, and his grandmother's logbook. He thinks about Soojung, and her foreigner friends and her graduate school applications. He grabs a piece of meat that's burning on the edge of the grill, fatty bits charred black, and eats it. Kyungsoo is still watching him, he can feel it.

"This is a small village," continues Jongdae. "So there's not much to do. It's not... exciting, except for the ghosts."

"There aren't any ghosts," says Soojung. "Shut up, oppa." She turns to Kyungsoo. "Don't let them lie to you. It's just the camphor trees."

"You're still scared," teases Jongdae, walking two fingers up Soojung's arm in a slow creep that makes her shiver. "A little ghost story never hurt anyone. There are more than just the ghosts in the hills."

"I got a taste of that today." Kyungsoo leans back, until his back rests lightly on the wall behind him. "Baekhyun took me up into the wilderness to see the shrine of Jeolbyeog-ri's local goddess, and we hiked through those trees."

"That was _not_ the wilderness, city boy," Baekhyun says. "That was a mild path through mostly farmland. Next time I'll take you up on the cliffs, and then we'll see how hard today's trail was."

"Next time?" Kyungsoo says. "What makes you so sure I'd spend another long day with you?" 

Opening his mouth to reply, not quite sure what he's going to say, yet, Baekhyun is cut off by Jongdae.

"Baekhyunnie took you up to see our halmang-dang?" Jongdae's eyebrows rise. "That's…" 

"He invited me yesterday," Kyungsoo says. "I was curious."

"I just thought if he was going to stay awhile, he might as well get to know the goddess," says Baekhyun, casually, ignoring Jongdae's piercing gaze, which is now trained on him instead of his guest. 

"Have you even been up there, since…" Soojung stops, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear and elbowing Jongdae, who hisses at her. "Well, there is a great view, just past the shrine."

"Right," says Baekhyun, grabbing another charred piece of meat. "It's a nice hike."

"Except for the camphor trees," mutters Soojung. Jongdae is still watching Baekhyun with curious eyes, rubbing at his arm where Soojung had hit him, so Baekhyun focuses on Kyungsoo, taking the tongs from his hands. 

"Stop working so hard," he says. "Eat something."

" _Are_ you planning to stay awhile, Kyungsoo?" asks Jongdae. Baekhyun fumbles with the tongs as he flips the meat one last time.

Kyungsoo winds the string of his sweatshirt around his finger, thoughtfully, then uses his crumpled moist towelette to wipe his hands again, reclaiming the tongs from Baekhyun. "Yes," he says. "I think I might." He starts to pull pieces of the meat off the grill and put them into the empty ceramic bowl next to the one with leaves. "After all, I have yet to receive a tour of the cliffs."

"Baekhyunnie's an expert at talking a lot about anything," says Jongdae, "but especially the area." He grabs the piece of meat Baekhyun has been eying, and triumphantly dips it into the sesame sauce before eating it slowly, with a pornographic moan. Baekhyun bares his teeth at him. 

Kyungsoo is giving him another look, and Baekhyun wishes he hadn't said anything at all about the teaching, if Kyungsoo's going to look at him like… like however he's looking at him. Baekhyun eats another anchovy, and all he can taste is the salt of it.

"You should take him out on a pony, Baekhyun," Soojung says.

"Do you like horses?" Baekhyun asks, taking a piece of meat himself and putting it into a piece of lettuce. Water from the freshly rinsed leaves is cool on his fingertips. He's starting to get the sheen of sweat that always comes from sitting in front of the grill "Chanyeol would love to take us out on the horses. He's always trying to get me to go riding more."

"I don't know," Kyungsoo says. "I don't think I've ever ridden a horse."

"Well," says Soojung, "I'm sure Chanyeol-oppa won't put you onto an excitable horse. He's not mean, like Baekhyun-oppa."

Jongdae chokes, coughing on the bite of kimchi he'd just snagged. Soojung slaps his back until he's laughing instead of choking, and Kyungsoo is watching, rather alarmed, until Jongdae smiles up at them with watery eyes. "Oh man, _that's_ a good memory."

"I'm not mean," says Baekhyun around his own mouthful of food. "That guy was _bragging_ about how good he was with horses. I was just trying to save a few more novice riders from a tougher mount."

"You wanted to teach him a lesson," Jongdae replies, drinking a long pull of water, and making another lettuce wrap with at least three pieces of pork belly in it. "We all did. Notice none of us stopped you." He shoves it into his mouth.

Kyungsoo calmly picks up a piece of pork and sets it on a genip leaf. "I don't know how reassuring this anecdote is."

"Live dangerously," Baekhyun says, leaning until his arm touches Kyungsoo's, like he'd done earlier. He expects Kyungsoo to lean away again, but Kyungsoo pushes back, giving him a slight side-eye. But his lips twitch.

"I'll leave the living dangerously to you," he says. "I think… I'd like to see the horses, though, at least."

"Great," says Baekhyun. Kyungsoo smiles again, and Baekhyun grins back at him, wrinkling his nose.

"It's a nice way to see some of the island, too," says Jongdae. "The trails are pretty extensive."

"I think everyone in Jejudo is an experienced tour guide," Kyungsoo says, and Soojung delicately adds kimchi to her lettuce wrap as she smiles.

"It's the pride," she says, holding the wrap to her lips. "We think Jeju is beautiful."

"It is," agrees Kyungsoo. "I can't wait to see more of it."

Jongdae picks up his shot glass. "To Kyungsoo enjoying Jeju," he says, and they all clink their glasses, throwing back the shot. Baekhyun licks his lips, after, and tastes the bitter rice liquor on his lips, all while looking at Kyungsoo, whose eyes glimmer in the light from the overhead lamps.

Later, after both bottles of soju are empty and a third round of meat finishes cooking on the grill, Jongdae's mother comes out with two bowls of soup in black stone bowls, one made of bean paste and the other one of fluffy egg. She carries soju tucked under her arm like Jongdae does. He probably learned the trick from her.

Baekhyun looks around the restaurant. It's fuller now, people from all over the village here to eat on a cold Sunday night.

Jongdae's mother smiles, setting down the soups and then the bottle of soju. "Are you treating Baekhyunnie's guest well?" she asks, meeting Baekhyun's eyes and then Jongdae's pointedly. Soojung preens at the assumption that of course _she_ is, and Baekhyun's nose is starting to go numb from the liquor.

"Of course we are, Mom~," Baekhyun says, batting his eyelashes at her, and she laughs, just like Jongdae does, with that same sweet feline smile.

"I've known you too long for that trick to work on me, Byun Baekhyun," she says, hands on her hips. Her ponytail falls across her shoulder. "So don't even try it."

Her gaze finally lands on Kyungsoo, and her eyes widen. "You must be the guest staying with Baekhyunnie," she says, and Kyungsoo nods.

"Yes, Kim-ssi," he says. "I'm visiting from Seoul."

"Well, whenever you get tired of Baekhyunnie's cooking, you make him bring you down here and I'll feed you," she says, and Baekhyun pretends to pout as Jongdae cackles. Kyungsoo's mouth twitches. "We have more than just samgyeopsal."

"I think we're working things out," he says, bowing politely, wobbling a little. It's the first sign that Baekhyun's caught that Kyungsoo is starting to feel the alcohol. He's jealous, since after one shot Baekhyun goes a fierce red and his tongue moves slower than his brain thinks it should, tripping over consonants he says easily otherwise. But Kyungsoo's speech and gestures had remained steady. "But I'll keep that in mind."

"You do that," Jongdae's mom says, tilting her head. She suddenly narrows her eyes, giving Kyungsoo a searching look. "Have you ever"— she stops, shaking her hair out of her face –"No, never mind, it was a silly thought."

Baekhyun licks his lips at the strange atmosphere that descends on the table, and slams his palms against the wood. "Jongdae, pour me another shot!"

"Boys," Soojung says, giggling despite herself, and Jongdae's mom gives Kyungsoo another odd glance before she shakes her head at them. 

"Try not to get too drunk to walk home," she says to Baekhyun, and Baekhyun grins at her. 

"No problem," he says, beaming at her. "You're the best, Mom."

"She's my mom, not yours," Jongdae says. "Stop trying to steal her."

"She likes me best," says Baekhyun. "It's because I'm so much cuter than you are."

"Bullshit," says Jongdae, jamming his spoon into the egg soup.

They bicker, with no malice and reused jokes, and Soojung pours them each another shot, even though they all have probably had enough. Kyungsoo wipes the edge of his glass carefully with his thumb, catching a stray drop of liquor, and then brings it to his mouth to suck it clean. Baekhyun's stomach twists, and he wonders if he's had too much to eat.

"Hey, Kyungsoo," Jongdae says, when he and Baekhyun have emerged, victor-less, from their squabble, "I forgot to ask what baseball team you like."

"Baseball?" Kyungsoo blinks sleepily, and Baekhyun's drunk enough that he almost coos at the way Kyungsoo pouts. This isn't Chanyeol, who would giggle at Baekhyun's prodding and then try to tickle him. This is quiet Kyungsoo, with glassy eyes and pink cheeks, and Baekhyun has gotten away with a few things so far, but he probably wouldn't get away with that.

"Yeah," Jongdae says, "you know, the most important sport to have ever existed. In the universe. I bet aliens watch baseball here on Earth from their home planets and wish they had something that important of their own to watch."

"Here we go," Soojung says, propping her cheek on her hand in a pose reminiscent of the one she'd had when they'd first walked in, only sloppier.

"I don't…" Kyungsoo runs his hand through his hair, "follow baseball?"

"Now you're really in for it," says Soojung. "You should have just said you liked the Doosan Bears."

"Kyungsoo," Jongdae says solemnly, then ruins it with a hiccup, "let me tell you about the best team in the league, the KIA Tigers."

"Gross, don't lie to him," Baekhyun says, kicking Jongdae under the table. "You're my guest, you have to like Nexan."

"I don't have to like anything," Kyungsoo says. "I don't have time for baseball."

"You have time right now," Baekhyun says, like he had last night, and Kyungsoo's eyebrows draw together. Baekhyun wants to smooth them straight with his thumb.

"I have to go back eventually," Kyungsoo says. "To Seoul." He shifts. "I can't stay here and have time for all these things forever."

"Eventually isn't tomorrow, though," says Baekhyun. "Or the day after that."

"Plenty of time to learn about baseball?" asks Kyungsoo. "Is that what you're saying?"

"Don't learn about the KIA Tigers, though," Baekhyun replies, needing to move. His stomach is so full. "They're a shit team."

"Noted," Kyungsoo says, looking up at Baekhyun through his hair, and Baekhyun sighs as Jongdae expounds on Im Junseob's superior pitching technique, and how DJ Houlton is an upcoming talent, or whatever other mess Jongdae tells himself so he can sleep at night when he likes such an awful team. 

"We should head back," Baekhyun says. It can't be past nine, but the restaurant is already almost empty. It is Sunday night, and Baekhyun knows Soojung has to catch the bus early in the morning to head back to her city apartment and classes. "I don't want to overexpose Kyungsoo to so many negative influences."

"Then maybe he should stay here," says Jongdae, and Baekhyun stands up, stretching his hands above his head, interlocked. Kyungsoo stands too, and bows quickly to Jongdae. 

"It was nice to meet you," he says, and does the same with Soojung. She smiles as she stacks the glasses. 

"I'm going to stay and help Jongdae clean up," she says. 

"You mean sit there and order me around," Jongdae replies, and Soojung laughs.

"I think it's helpful," she teases, and Jongdae shrugs. 

Baekhyun picks up both coats on their side of the table, and puts the larger one on, before he holds up Kyungsoo's and drapes it over his shoulders. Kyungsoo's drowsy, and he's unsteady on his feet as he slides his arms into the sleeves, so Baekhyun holds on to it until he's pulled it up and on. Then he rests both of his hands on Kyungsoo's shoulders. He bets his chin would sit right on top of Kyungsoo's head, if he got up on his toes. 

Kyungsoo doesn't shrug him off, just zips up his coat, and Jongdae pulls on his own ear lobe as he watches them.

"You should be careful, Kyungsoo," says Jongdae. "If you're letting him get away with that already, he'll start to cling to you like an abalone on the rocks."

Baekhyun makes a squawking noise of protest, but he's too sated and heavy with meat to put up much of a fight.

"I've noticed," Kyungsoo says. "I've already threatened to break his fingers. It doesn't seem to have been a deterrent."

"Baekhyunnie-oppa seems to think people will disappear if he's not holding on to them," Soojung says, and Baekhyun flinches. Kyungsoo notices, and leans into him slightly. "He's always been like that."

Baekhyun closes his eyes, and licks his lips. His mouth is fuzzy, and there's a gentle throbbing behind his left eye.

"You'd better not fall asleep, Baekhyun." Kyungsoo's voice is low and silky, and with nothing to look at, Baekhyun can just listen to the cadence of it.

"I won't," Baekhyun says. "Not until we get back to the guesthouse." He opens his eyes again, and grins at Kyungsoo. "Have a safe trip, Soojung."

"Later, oppa." She waves, and then she looks at Kyungsoo again. "Take good care of your visitor."

"No wild ponies," Baekhyun vows, as Jongdae starts to pile side dish bowls up into a stack on the end of the table.

"I like your friends," Kyungsoo says.

"Me too," Baekhyun replies. "I've known them for a long time."

"I guess that's what happens when you spend your whole life in one place."

"I moved here," says Baekhyun, "when I was nine, to live with my grandmother." He hooks his fingers in the pocket of his coat. "But yeah, most of my life."

"Oh?" Kyungsoo shrugs. "I don't have a place like this. We moved around a lot for my father's work, so I mostly went to international schools." 

"International schools?" Baekhyun laughs. "Where did you live, then?" 

"Lots of places in Europe," says Kyungsoo. "I finished elementary school in Switzerland, and then we lived in Germany. I was in Scotland, for a while, too. That was a boarding school, and my brother and I were only there part of a year." He pauses. "Canada, too, and Japan. I was in Japan the longest. More than two whole school years."

"That's a lot of languages to learn. Do you speak Japanese? Or German, and, uh, what language do they speak in Switzerland?"

"All my classes were in English," Kyungsoo says. "I wasn't… I learned it quickly, when I needed it."

"I can barely speak Korean," jokes Baekhyun. "I'm impressed." He's gotten through two chapters of _Learn Chinese!_ , but it's just like school, and anything he's tried to memorize is gone as soon as he's learned it. He has memorized a bunch of Japanese from anime, though, even if he's not sure how useful it is. "Sounds exciting. You've been all around the world." Germany? Scotland? The furthest Baekhyun has been, aside from his time in the navy, is out into the ocean on Minseok's dad's fishing boat, face slick with tears as numbers came in on the radio, grid calls from other boats. "Must have been amazing."

"In some ways." Kyungsoo sighs, and the wind blows, then, maybe in sympathy. "But it also means that I only have one childhood friend," he says. "And nothing like…" He gestures around them, at the village. "I used to see my family once a year, at most. So this… This is nice."

"It is," Baekhyun says, taking a deep breath. Salt and brine and wind. He stumbles, the world going momentarily wonky, and Kyungsoo grabs his arm, firmly. "Sorry, my alcohol tolerance is notoriously low."

"You'd be in trouble at my company," says Kyungsoo. "Half the deals we make are conducted over bottle after bottle of wine."

Baekhyun wrinkles his nose. "I've never liked wine."

"Me neither," Kyungsoo admits, and then he laughs. "But I've learned to tolerate the expensive kind." He lets go of Baekhyun's arm, and Baekhyun plods forward on autopilot, up toward the guesthouse, Kyungsoo close behind him. 

"Why do you drink it, if you don't like it?"

"A lot of reasons," Kyungsoo says. "None of them are interesting."

"I think," says Baekhyun, as he skims his fingertips along the rock wall to his right, nails scraping stone as he walks, almost in a straight line, "that we need to reevaluate your definition of interesting."

"Maybe," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun looks at him, trying to make out his features in the dark. 

"We'll work on it while you're here," he says. "Along with showing you the best parts of the island." Baekhyun rubs at his eyes, but it doesn't make Kyungsoo any clearer. Of course it doesn't.

"You don't have to," Kyungsoo says. Baekhyun prefers his authoritative voice to this unsure one. "I'm only paying you for a room, not all your time."

"Didn't I already tell you? I want to."

Baekhyun might not ever go to Europe, but Kyungsoo is a dash of excitement that's come here, to Baekhyun, and Baekhyun wants to know so much more about him.

"As long as you know there's no obligation," says Kyungsoo. He steps up first, to the guesthouse door, and pushes it open. 

Baekhyun follows close behind, slipping out of his shoes, and then turning them at the door so that the toes face neatly out. Then he bumps into Kyungsoo again as he reaches for the hall light switch. He mutters his customary prayer as it flickers: once, twice, three times, and then it comes on. "I really need to get a new light bulb."

Kyungsoo takes off the hat, and hangs the coat on the back of the chair again. Then he fills the same water glass from earlier, and Baekhyun watches him blearily from the doorway. "You should have some water, too."

"I don't get hangovers," says Baekhyun. He runs his tongue along his teeth.

"Lucky you," Kyungsoo replies. He takes the glass with him, and walks past Baekhyun back into the hall. Baekhyun follows Kyungsoo's progression to his room with blurry eyes. 

"Riding tomorrow?" Baekhyun asks. When did his voice get so hoarse?

"Only if you promise not to put me on a mean pony."

"You're going to write poetry about how beautiful the horseback trails are." 

"I'm not a big fan of poetry," says Kyungsoo, hesitating in the doorway. The ruddy pink of his cheeks and the shine in his eyes is proof he's still feeling the liquor. "Not my thing."

"You'll be moved to sijo," says Baekhyun. "It's just that inspiring. Good night, Kyungsoo."

"Good night, Baekhyun." Kyungsoo pauses, leaning heavily against his door. "I had fun today."

"I'm glad," Baekhyun says.

"It's been a long time since I've had fun," he adds, so quietly Baekhyun barely catches it, and then he closes the door, leaving Baekhyun alone in the hallway to stare after him, wondering, yet again, why Do Kyungsoo had come here, to the middle of nowhere village of Jeolbyeog-ri.

⚘❁⚘

When Baekhyun wakes, up, it's to the music of a downpour. It pounds down on the roof and at the windows. 

He stretches out in his blankets, wiggling his toes as his jaw cracks, and then sits up, running fingers quickly through his hair and pulling on a T-shirt, a souvenir from high school when he and Jongdae had driven up to Jeju-si to see After School perform at some hallyu wave concert at the stadium.

He shuffles into the bathroom and quickly brushes his teeth, sighing as he notices a new pimple on his chin and then rolling his eyes at himself in the mirror because he's got no one to impress.

He doesn't bother with his hair, and walks out into the hall toward the main room of the house.

Kyungsoo is sitting on a cushion in front of the window in the center room, a mug of coffee in his hands as he looks out at the sea. The wind and the rain make it look like something out of a movie.

"So, ready to go out riding?" Baekhyun asks, and Kyungsoo startles, turning his head sharply, eyes big like a deer in the headlights. "I'm just kidding. No need to be so alarmed."

"I didn't hear you come in," Kyungsoo says.

"That may be the first time anyone's ever said that to me. I should write this occasion down in my planner."

"You keep a planner?" Kyungsoo takes a sip of his coffee, and smiles.

"No," Baekhyun says. "I struggle enough with the log book."

"Why do you keep it then? Tradition?"

"My grandmother was particular about it," says Baekhyun. "She always wanted to keep written records of everything. Didn't trust computers." He shrugs. "I know she'd want me to keep using it, so I do. The computer records make it easier to accept credit cards and do my taxes." 

Baekhyun had taken over with the taxes when he'd graduated. That was right before Yixing had left to go back to China. The two of them had dug out all the paper records, organized in cardboard boxes with mold at the corners, and put everything into some software Baekhyun's older brother had recommended that slowed Baekhyun's netbook down to a crawl. It had been exhausting, but Yixing had made it fun, sounding out words he'd never seen before on old tax returns and Baekhyun having to grab a dictionary because he didn't know half of them either.

"So it's sentimental?" Kyungsoo nods. "Handwritten things make better memories?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, grabbing another cushion and pulling it next to Kyungsoo. When he sits, their knees brush. "I like to do things the way she preferred. You can remember people in the small things."

"You were close to her?"

"She raised me, mostly," Baekhyun says. "My brother and I." He laughs. "And Yixing."

"You have a brother?" Kyungsoo sets his mug down on the floor between them, empty.

"Older," says Baekhyun. "He graduated and never looked back. I see him twice a year. Seollal and Chuseok. He lives in Busan, near where Jongdae and I did our service. Went to university there." Baekhyun plucks at the faded, peeling letters on his sweatpants. "He's the book-smart one in our family." Maybe all types of smart. After all, he'd left Baekhyun here and gone out and gotten himself a life. 

"What are you, then?" Kyungsoo asks. "The annoying one?"

"I'm the pretty one," Baekhyun says, fluttering his eyelashes. "Isn't it obvious?" Kyungsoo sighs, like he was expecting Baekhyun's answer but hoping he wouldn't get it, and it's so exasperated Baekhyun laughs. "Okay, okay, I'm… I don't know. I'm just the other one." Baekhyun folds his arms around his legs, pulling them up to his chest. "I'm the funny one."

Kyungsoo starts to pluck at his pants, and looks down at his socks. "So who is Yixing?"

"Yixing is…" Baekhyun wonders how to explain. "He lived with us for awhile. A few years, I guess." It had been after Baekbeom had left. One day, Baekhyun's grandmother had come into Baekhyun's room while he was strategically doing anything but his homework, and told them someone would be staying with them for a time. _"Take care of him, Baekhyunnie,"_ she'd said. "He's a good friend. I need to write him an e-mail, but I keep forgetting."

"Yixing," Kyungsoo says. "That's a Chinese name?"

"Yep," Baekhyun says. "Yixing's Korean is the cutest. It's like every letter is excited to jump out of his mouth." He rests his forehead on his knees. "He plays the guitar, too, and remembers the weirdest songs."

The rain is coming down even harder now: Baekhyun knows without looking up because he can hear it on the roof.

"When was this guesthouse built?" Baekhyun lifts his head. Kyungsoo isn't looking out the window anymore. No, he's looking at Baekhyun, and Baekhyun swallows and wishes, all of a sudden, that he had combed his hair. 

"Do you remember the house we passed yesterday?" asks Baekhyun. "The old potter's house?"

"The abandoned one," Kyungsoo says. "Yes, I do."

"That house is newer than this old guesthouse." Kyungsoo's lips part in surprise, and he looks around as if seeing the place in a new light. "Of course, we've had more renovations done here."

"Just a few," Kyungsoo agrees. 

"This house has been in my mother's family for generations. There's only hyung and me left now. A few uncles, too"

"But you were left with the guesthouse."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, blowing his hair out of his face in a futile gesture, finally giving in and using his fingers. It really is getting too long and shaggy. He'll ask Taeyeon to cut it for him, the next time he runs into her. She has the steadiest hand, besides Soojung. "Might as well give it to the kid with no plans, right?"

Kyungsoo doesn't reply to that, just stretches out his short legs until his toes barely touch Baekhyun's thigh. They're quiet for a while, but then Kyungsoo speaks. "Does it get much colder than this?"

"Only a little," Baekhyun says. "We might get some snow, if it's a chilly year. Mostly it snows up on the north part of the island, but nowhere is safe."

"I was wondering if I should drive into the city and buy a coat for December," Kyungsoo says. Baekhyun puts his arms back behind him and rests his weight on them. "Or January. I don't really like to be cold."

January. That's a long time. Baekhyun's afraid he might get used to living with someone again, and that would be…

"You should be all right," says Baekhyun. "You can keep using mine, if you want. I don't mind using my hyung's. They're the same coat, really, only his is larger. My grandmother always bought him a size larger, even when we were the same size."

"So it's okay, then?" Kyungsoo's feet retract as he switches to sitting cross-legged. He looks back out the window, but Baekhyun's not sure he's actually looking at anything. "If I stay that long?"

"This is a guesthouse," Baekhyun says. "You can stay as long as you want." He rolls his head around on his neck. He's still got kinks in his back from sleep. "Do you want some breakfast?"

"I can teach you the trick," says Kyungsoo, "for getting the eggs perfect, without the edges."

Baekhyun studies the way Kyungsoo's tiny hands draw patterns on his thigh, the only sign of nervousness peeping through his complete composure, and grins. 

"If you can teach me to do it before the next time Chanyeollie drops by for breakfast," Baekhyun says, "you can stay forever."

Kyungsoo turns to him and smiles, soft and a little wistful. "I have to go back to work eventually," he says, and Baekhyun presses his lips together, and looks out at the rain.

⚘❁⚘

"It's so wet outside," Chanyeol says. His baseball cap is turned sideways, and when he sits in the doorway, on the edge of the step facing the back lot of the guesthouse, Baekhyun pulls it straight and down so it covers his eyes. He keeps his socked feet on the step. "Punk."

"Of course it's wet," Baekhyun says, wiping his hands on his jeans and squatting down to mess with the spigot. He sets a bucket under it and finally gets it to turn left. Water pulses out too quickly, splashing on the black and white plastic shoes he keeps by the back door and getting his socks wet. "It's been raining for two days."

"What have you been doing, then?" Chanyeol asks. "I know the television never really comes through clearly when we get the double combo of wind and rain. I thought my truck was going to blow sideways yesterday when I was driving home from work."

"The wind goddess must be angry," says Baekhyun, as water starts to fill the bucket. "The wind's been much harsher than usual."

"You sound like my mom," says Chanyeol. "Can't we just chalk it up to global warming like everyone else?"

"How would global warming explain the cold?" Baekhyun replies.

"Well," Chanyeol says, gearing up for one of his long, involved, science-y explanations that will undoubtedly make Baekhyun feel like he's back in school, "basically, it involves the Polar Vortex, and the force of--"

"Never mind," Baekhyun interrupts. "I actually really don't care. All I care about it that it's been raining non-stop."

"It's stopped now?"

Baekhyun sighs and turns the spigot wheel right again, stopping the water. Then he flicks Chanyeol's knee. "Move, you oaf."

"Just because I'm tall and handsome," Chanyeol says, standing up and rubbing at the now wet butt of his jeans, "doesn't mean you need to call me names."

"You're in my way." Baekhyun slips out of his shoes and past Chanyeol, carrying the heavy bucket with both hands. 

"You're being awfully industrious this morning," Chanyeol says. "Haven't you had two days to inexplicably decide you're not a slob?"

Baekhyun had ended up spending most of that first rainy day wasting every egg in the house, Kyungsoo watching judgmentally with crossed arms every time he burnt the edges. In the end, they'd had a miniature feast of eggs, even if Baekhyun ate three to every one Kyungsoo managed, since Baekhyun rolled his up with his fingers and ate it while Kyungsoo had cut his into weird geometric bites, cutting around the yolk and then eating that last in one big messy bite. Baekhyun had laughed at Kyungsoo until he'd licked the yolk from the corners of his lips. Kyungsoo had smiled a lot, and even if Baekhyun's stomach had hurt, it had been worth it.

The second day, Baekhyun had ended up going into the village in the downpour, with his umbrella keeping the rain off the top of his head but the wind blowing it toward him as he walked, soaking the fronts of his jeans. He'd run into Kim Taeyeon as he picked up another eighteen eggs and enough fish for dinner. Taeyeon had been gorgeous, as usual, hair wavy from the rain and pulled back in a loose ponytail behind her neck. She'd looked up at Baekhyun and asked if he'd gotten taller lately, and Baekhyun had smiled at her and told her he definitely had, and that she'd better watch out because soon he'd be as tall as Chanyeol. 

_"The truth is,"_ she'd said, as she handed four 1000Won bills to Old Man Lee, who tucked it away in his old green apron, _"we're all getting too old to grow physically any way but out."_

 _"That's not true,"_ Baekhyun had replied. _"I think your hair is definitely longer than it was a few weeks ago."_ They'd both laughed, but the whole way home, Baekhyun had let his wet cloth shopping bag bump into his knee, and eventually, he'd given up on his umbrella, too, pulling it closed and letting the rain plaster his hair to his face, and thought about how many years he'd walked the same path to and from the guesthouse, and how many times he'll walk it in the years to come.

"I need to mop the entry-way and part of the hallway," says Baekhyun. "Mud." He sets the bucket on the floor just inside the front door, and then walks into the kitchen, where he'd left the mop earlier, after breakfast. His eggs had turned out perfectly for the third day in a row. "Plus..."

Chanyeol throws an arm around Baekhyun's shoulder and pulls Baekhyun into his side, nuzzling at his hair. "Plus what?"

"Kyungsoo doesn't really say anything," Baekhyun says, "but he's kind of..." He searches for the word. "Clean," is what he settles on, even though it doesn't quite encapsulate the way Kyungsoo had absently started alphabetizing the magazines Baekhyun had chosen to leave on the table in the main room, or the way he'd taken the cactuses and put them in a neat line against the wall in the kitchen at some point while Baekhyun was out.

"I get it," Chanyeol says, releasing Baekhyun when he starts to squirm. "It's so weird, you having stuff to do in the winter up here."

"Yeah," says Baekhyun. "It's..." The past few winters, Baekhyun has spent most of his waking hours away from the guesthouse. It's too big for one person. Instead, he spent most of his time picking tangerines or helping Chanyeol with the ponies. Sometimes he'd spend hours down at the shore, watching the divers go in even when the seas were too rough for diving. Often, he'd end up taking long bus rides out to the cliff, and watching the waves from a new vantage point until the sun started to dip below the horizon. "I like it."

Chanyeol looks at him, starts to speak, and then changes his mind, ruffling Baekhyun's hair instead. Baekhyun huffs at him, picking up the mop and putting it into the bucket. He really should invest in one of those scrubber things, with the changeable wipes on the bottom, but they leave a chemical smell in the air that doesn't sit right with him. The smell of old wood and chamomile is worth the extra effort of mopping like this.

"Speaking of your guest," Chanyeol says, "where is he?"

"He went out for a walk earlier," Baekhyun says. "He doesn't seem to get as anxious when it rains, like I do, but..." He laughs. "Maybe he needed a break from me!"

"Is he as quiet as we thought?"

"Yes and no," Baekhyun says. He starts the familiar slow pattern, back and forth with the mop. Chanyeol gets in his way as usual, standing with his back against the wall and arms crossed, watching Baekhyun work. "He's... I don't think he's used to dealing socially with a lot of people? At least not... without other motivations, like business or something."

"Ah," says Chanyeol. "So he's used to making deals and bossing people around."

"I don't know," Baekhyun says. All he knows is that it involves a lot of wine. 

"Jongdae liked him," Chanyeol says. "Had dinner with him yesterday. He made fun of me for looking like a drowned rat the whole time, but in between the insults he mentioned you had taken Kyungsoo up to the halmang-dang."

"Is that really such a big deal?" Baekhyun stops mopping, and looks up at Chanyeol, whose usual wide grin is replaced with a sloppy half smile. His eyes are penetrating, and Baekhyun fidgets under that gaze. "I just thought he'd like to see it."

"You haven't been up there since your grandmother died."

That's not true. Baekhyun had spent hours up there, in the following weeks after the funeral, trying to leave all of his sadness in the sheets of white paper he tucked between tree and rock. It had almost worked. 

"I didn't really think about that," says Baekhyun. "I mostly thought..." He sighs, and drops down to his knees, using his hands to wring out the mop. "He looked like Yixing did, when he got here. You never met him, but when he showed up..." Baekhyun blows his hair out of his face, and wipes his hands on his jeans again, leaving wet grayish brown handprints on his thighs. "Kyungsoo looked lost. So like with Yixing, I took him to the halmang-dang. That's all."

Chanyeol nods, and turns his baseball cap sideways again. Baekhyun had given it to him, last year on his birthday. Nexan Heroes. Chanyeol doesn't like baseball at all, but he humors Baekhyun more often than he humors Jongdae. Baekhyun thinks Chanyeol just likes the way Jongdae whines when he's put out. "You know, I've still never been up there."

"Well-"

The door opens, and Kyungsoo is standing there, hair in complete disarray. His eyes are clouded, and his mouth is tight. He has his phone in his hand, grip white knuckled. 

"Did you get signal?" Baekhyun asks. 

"Yes," Kyungsoo says. "I had to call my brother. He's been trying to reach me for a week, apparently."

"Oh," Baekhyun says. "Was he worried about you?" 

Kyungsoo's eyebrows furrow. "No," he says. "Not really." He sighs, and walks into the guesthouse. His shoes are clean, meaning he'd taken the road and not the back path. His nose is red. His movements are stiff, and maybe it's because he's cold, but in Baekhyun's opinion, it's more like Kyungsoo is upset. He wishes he knew Kyungsoo well enough to tell. "I should've called in and taken care of a few things at work before I came back up here." There's a _but_ lingering at the end of the sentence.

Baekhyun wonders what kind of job you can take off from for three months without warning.

"Baekhyunnie really should get the lines fixed out here," Chanyeol says. "It would only take a day."

"But then jerks like you would be able to call me," says Baekhyun. "No thanks."

"Then guests like Kyungsoo would be able to make their calls without taking a hike," counters Chanyeol.

"Then," Kyungsoo says, mouth still tight, "I wouldn't have an excuse not to answer my phone."

Kyungsoo's voice is odd, slightly husky, and so Baekhyun laughs louder to distract all of them from it. The sound is jarring, even to Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo licks his lips. 

"See, Chanyeol, I win."

"You always win," Chanyeol says linking his fingers behind his neck, elbows stretched out to either side. "It's your guesthouse. You can make it as unwelcoming as you'd like." He beams, showing, like, five-hundred teeth, and winks at Baekhyun.

"Yeah, you just drop by all the time because it's _unwelcoming_." He talks fast, and he thinks it's working, because Kyungsoo's forehead is smooth, now, in that unreadable expression Baekhyun is beginning to think is his default.

"The things I do for our friendship," Chanyeol says, putting a hand to his forehead dramatically. His low voice carries throughout the guesthouse, warming it up. 

Baekhyun steals another glance at Kyungsoo, who has bent over and begun to methodically untie his shoes, loosening the laces with just his index finger, like when he scratches at his scalp. His huge phone sits next to his feet, blinking low battery. "I wanted to take Kyungsoo out on the horse trails," Baekhyun says. "When is a good time for you?"

"None of my tours over the next few days are full," says Chanyeol. "So if it doesn't rain today or tomorrow, I'd say the day after that. Tomorrow the ground is still going to be too soft. It just won't be as pleasant."

"We could go to the tangerine grove tomorrow," says Baekhyun thoughtfully. "Soojung's mom is swamped with more than she can pick again this year."

"I don't think I've ever picked anything in my life," says Kyungsoo, straightening up. His mouth has gone soft again, and his eyes no longer resemble yesterday's storm clouds. He unzips his coat, or, well, Baekhyun's coat, to reveal his soft SNU sweatshirt. 

His shoes look so small next to Baekhyun's, just like his hands. How can someone so small have such a big presence?

"It's not too bad," Chanyeol says. "It's fun the first few times you do it." He twists his hat again. "Then your fingers get sore, but the tangerines taste better when you pick them yourself."

"My mother says that too," says Kyungsoo. "She..." Lifting a hand to his hair, he pushes it back from his face. His Adam's apple bobs as he swallows. "She really likes tangerines."

"Really?" Baekhyun hums, and scratches his stomach. "Our special ones, or just tangerines in general?"

Kyungsoo shrugs. "I don't know." His hair falls back across his forehead, and in front of his eyes again. A few pieces stick out from his crown, like wayward tree branches. "Please excuse me."

He walks between them, and down the hallway, closing the door behind him.

There's an awkward silence, and Baekhyun coughs. "I'll get back to you about the day after tomorrow." 

"Sounds good." Chanyeol pulls his phone out of his pocket and presses the center button to summon the time. "It's almost noon," he says. "I promised to be around for a tour group stopping by at one, so I'd better get a move on."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "Do you think the weather's going to last? I want to wash clothes, but not if it's going to rain."

"We aren't supposed to have any more rain this week," Chanyeol says. "At least, that's what my weather app says."

"Cool," Baekhyun says. He rubs the outsides of his arms, the heat he'd generated from mopping fading as they stand there. A T-shirt isn't warm enough out here in the hall, without a heater, the winter seeping in through the crack under the door. "I'll get to it."

"I don't think he's shy," Chanyeol says. "Kyungsoo, I mean."

"You don't?" Baekhyun picks up the bucket and carries it into the kitchen. Chanyeol follows him. "What is your esteemed opinion, then?"

"I think he seems sad," says Chanyeol bluntly. Chanyeol's always blunt, even when he's on his best behavior. "I don't know, never mind." 

_It's been a long time since I've had fun._

Tell Baekhyun something he doesn't know.

"Maybe," says Baekhyun. He lifts the bucket again, pouring some of the water into the small chasteberry plants he takes care of. Soon it'll be time to move these ones outside into the yard, so they can sprawl out and grow. Baekhyun's just letting them ride out the winter here in the kitchen. He splits the rest of the water between the cactuses and the tiny wildflowers he grows in equally tiny pots, the same ones his grandmother had grown just because his mother liked them. "Didn't you say you had somewhere to be?"

"Yeah," Chanyeol says. "See you when you come out to the field. You can meet the new horses."

"Looking forward to it," says Baekhyun, setting the empty bucket down as Chanyeol yells goodbye from the entryway, sliding into the massive boats that pass for his shoes and heading out to his old red truck. The engine is loud as he roars away, down the driveway and out to road 1132. 

Baekhyun washes his hands in the sink, the mint smell of his soap clinging to his fingers and wrists as he heads into his room and starts to gather up all his dirty clothes. He thinks about it, then shimmies out of his handprint marked jeans, too. He quickly puts on his Pusan University sweats and picks up the armful of laundry, walking to the kitchen and squatting down to open the washer. He drops everything onto the freshly mopped floor and starts to separate them, shoving in everything that isn't white and leaving the whites in a pile in front of the washing machine. 

He stands up just as his thighs start to cramp, and walks out of the kitchen and left down the hallway, to rap his knuckles on Kyungsoo's door.

"Come in," he says, and Baekhyun pushes open the door, peeking in. Kyungsoo's room, as expected, is completely tidy, shirts and pants folded in the open closet, and his suitcase zipped neatly in the corner. He's folded up all the bedding, too, in even squares in order of thickness, pink then green then white. "Yes?"

Spread out around Kyungsoo are what look like plans, detailed drawings that Baekhyun can't make heads or tails of. "Do you want me to wash anything? I'm doing colors first, then whites."

Kyungsoo blinks at him, and then rises, carefully stepping over the half unrolled oversized papers and walking toward Baekhyun. The room is small, but there's an entire portion covered by the door that Baekhyun can't see. That's where Kyungsoo's dirty laundry is, apparently, and Baekhyun holds out his arms and takes it. "Thank you," Kyungsoo says. 

"I thought you only had a backpack," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo looks up at him witheringly.

"I drove here, Baekhyun," he says. "In my car. I just had one night's worth of clothing in my backpack. I always do that when I travel, in case I'm required to check my luggage and it gets lost."

"Right," Baekhyun says. "So all this was in the trunk?"

"The back seat," Kyungsoo says. "I was only planning to go to the office with them."

"Ah," Baekhyun says. "What… are they?"

"I work for an architectural firm," Kyungsoo says. "We design and then build functional family apartment buildings in the Seoul suburbs."

"Oh," Baekhyun says. He tries to put that information with all the other things he's learned, and in the end, it forms a picture that makes sense to him. "Are you the boss?"

"Kind of," Kyungsoo says, giving Baekhyun a small smile. "I'm a boss. I'm in charge of the projects I work on." He steps away from Baekhyun, and back into the center of his plans, which Baekhyun has just realized are arranged like Tetris blocks. "This is our team's current project. We've got a contract to build a new luxury building in Gyeonggi." He frowns. "These are old plans, though. Not new ones."

Baekhyun looks down at Kyungsoo's boggling plans, and then at the neatly folded laundry in his arms. "Do you like Tetris?" he asks, and Kyungsoo gives him an odd look.

"What?" 

"Ah, nothing, nothing," Baekhyun says, backing out of the room. "Should I close the door?"

Kyungsoo has settled himself back down, legs folded up, and now he has a pencil in one hand, an expensive looking mechanical one, and sticky notes in the other. He looks up at Baekhyun and licks his lips, before snagging the lower one with his straight white teeth. "No," he says, as Baekhyun shifts in place, waiting for an answer. "You don't have to."

"Okay," Baekhyun says, and leaves the door ajar. 

He puts Kyungsoo's muddy jeans and lots of socks into the washing machine. Every pair is black, as is all of his underwear. Baekhyun laughs, completely unsurprised. 

Starting the machine, Baekhyun leaves a pile of white in the middle of the floor while he goes to look for his laundry basket. He finds it, with the laundry cords carefully wound up and a floral cloth bag of yellow and pink clips at the bottom. That's not Baekhyun's doing: he bets Chanyeol did it one day, while Baekhyun was off looking for his PSP charger or something. Chanyeol's always fooling around with stuff. He likes using his hands. Old Man Jung's teaching him how to whittle. 

The washing machine is noisy, but hopefully not enough to disturb Kyungsoo, who has opened the door to his cave for the first time while he's working in there. 

Baekhyun sets the laundry basket by the machine, next to the pile of white clothes, and takes the line out, leaving the clips for now. Slipping on his back door sandals again, Baekhyun goes out the back door. 

It's gotten warmer and sunnier as the day's worn on, which is good. On days when it's cooler than 10 degrees and overcast, like yesterday and the day before, it's too cold to do laundry outside. That means hanging up clothes all across the main room for nine to ten hours. He already has to do that most of January, and it's not as much fun as it had been when he was ten and he could pretend they were lasers and he had to dodge them, when he wasn't semi-obediently hanging socks with plastic clips by their toes from the line.

But on nice, warmer days like today, the laundry will dry in three hours, especially if the cool wind behaves.

He hangs the line from the posts that have always been set up for clotheslines. The cord is meant to stay up, but Baekhyun's grandmother always worried about the wind. Baekhyun doesn't, but he also doesn't mind winding the clothesline each time. He makes sure there are two lines this time, because he has twice as many clothes. He hasn't done that in a while. Even when he does laundry for guests in the summer, it's usually just one or two things. Hikers passing through and spending one night who want to wash their spare shirt, or something like that.

He tugs on the center of the line, to make sure it's sturdy, and is satisfied when there's barely any give. The sun's fully out now as it nears one in the afternoon. It's too late to start laundry, really, but Baekhyun's hoping it's bright enough and warm enough that it'll still dry before sunset. 

When the washing machine beeps, Baekhyun pulls the wet clothes out and puts them haphazardly into the basket, setting the cloth bag of clips on top of the load as he jams the whites into the machine.

Carrying the basket outside, he starts to hang the laundry, just the way he'd learned how to as a child. He starts with the undershirts, turning them upside down and using two clips for each, one on each side. He sings as he works, a pop song he'd liked in high school about getting dumped, or something. He whistles whenever he forgets the words, which is fairly often, and sings loudest at the chorus where he's surest of the lyrics.

He's starting the third shirt when he sees movement out of the corner of his eye. It's Kyungsoo, carrying his sneakers in one hand. He sets them down at the bottom of the back step and puts them on carefully, tying neat little bows as Baekhyun watches. 

"Going for a walk?" Baekhyun asks.

"No," Kyungsoo says, "I came out to see if I could help."

"Have you ever hung clothes out to dry before?" 

"I have an indoor rack."

"That's not the same at all," Baekhyun teases. "Apples and oranges."

"Jejudo and Seoul," Kyungsoo corrects, and Baekhyun laughs. Kyungsoo pushes up his sleeves. "I think I'll get the hang of it."

"The clips are in the bag," Baekhyun says, picking up another shirt. He starts to hang it, watching out of the corner of his eye as Kyungsoo picks up a sodden pair of jeans and walks under the clothesline to go to the second one, on the other side. Between his After School tee and a plain black undershirt that is undoubtedly Kyungsoo's, he stares as Kyungsoo stands on his toes, struggling to hang Baekhyun's jeans. 

Quickly finishing with the shirt he's on, Baekhyun ducks under the hanging clothes to come up next to Kyungsoo. "Let me show you," he says. He takes the jeans from Kyungsoo's hands. "You have to hang them by the back part of the waistband with two clips." Kyungsoo holds out the clips in his small hand, and Baekhyun takes one. "If you try to clip the front and the back, it's too thick, and the inside will take longer to dry." He clips the left side to the line. "Do the other side?"

Kyungsoo steps closer to him, his left arm pressing fully to Baekhyun's right as he rises onto his toes again, clipping the right side of the jeans. He teeters, and Baekhyun snakes out with his right arm, wrapping it around Kyungsoo's waist to steady him. Kyungsoo leans into him easily, and for a moment, Baekhyun's mind goes sort of blank as Kyungsoo's hair tickles his chin. Kyungsoo's sweatshirt had risen, with his stretch, so Baekhyun's slightly damp fingers touch bare skin, making Kyungsoo shiver in his grasp. 

"Your hands are cold," Kyungsoo says, falling from his toes back to a solid stance, and Baekhyun drops his arm quickly, swallowing roughly as he moves away from Kyungsoo, enough that he can no longer smell Kyungsoo's soap.

"Wet clothes in the winter," says Baekhyun. "Sorry."

"Better a cold hand than falling, right?" Kyungsoo looks at the jeans. "I think I've got it now. At least for jeans."

"Then I'll leave those to you," says Baekhyun, going back to his side of the clothesline. His heart is beating faster, for some reason, and his throat feels tight as he pushes the basket in between the two lines. He watches Kyungsoo's feet, as he moves down the line, and even as Baekhyun hangs another shirt, this one long sleeved and trickier, he feels Kyungsoo's soft skin instead of rough wet cotton. 

He licks his lips, and starts singing again.

"I liked that song in high school," Kyungsoo says, as Baekhyun picks up the empty basket to go and get the load of whites. There's plenty of space left on the line for them, and they'll dry fast. "I had it on my mp3 player." He smiles, and Baekhyun's heart, which had finally slowed, speeds up again. "Your version was pitchier."

The words snap him out of whatever weirdness he's in, and he lightly slaps Kyungsoo's arm. "I'll have you know I won two talent contests in high school."

"Only two?" Kyungsoo raises both eyebrows. "Your village has a population of two-hundred, Baekhyun. Surely you could have done better than that."

"Had to give everyone else a chance," he replies, shucking his sandals and stepping into the guesthouse. "Don't take off your shoes. I'll be right back with the whites."

Kyungsoo smiles again, bigger, and nods, and Baekhyun loves the shape of his mouth, the downward dip of his upper lip, when he smiles.

Later that afternoon, when Kyungsoo has retired back to his plans with chapped hands and noise complaints, Baekhyun washes rice for dinner at the sink.

 _"I think he seems sad,"_ Chanyeol had said, and maybe Baekhyun has seen it too, that familiar sadness lurking in Kyungsoo's eyes whenever he's left to his own thoughts. But this afternoon, Baekhyun thinks, hanging laundry out back, Kyungsoo had briefly lost those shadows under the afternoon sun.

The water for the rice runs clear, and Baekhyun puts it into the rice cooker and starts the timer.

⚘❁⚘

Kyungsoo cooks breakfast in the morning.

Baekhyun comes in to Kyungsoo standing in profile at the stove, eyes closed as he holds his shirt up to his nose. A thick stripe of his pale belly is visible, a barely noticeable dusting of hair leading down from his navel and disappearing into the elastic waistband of his tracksuit pants. Baekhyun thinks about how smooth that skin had felt under his fingers briefly before he shakes his head to clear the thought away along with some of the other morning fog before he looks back up at Kyungsoo's face, half buried in cotton. His eyelashes are so dark. On the stove, some kind of stew cooks over a low flame.

"Good morning," says Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo lets go of his shirt.

"My shirt smells like the ocean," says Kyungsoo. 

"That's where the breeze comes from," says Baekhyun. 

"I thought it came from Yeongdeung." Kyungsoo takes a spoon from the counter to taste the broth.

"Who comes to the island following the currents," says Baekhyun. "Try to keep up."

"You say so many things." Kyungsoo puts one hand on his hip and peers into his pot. "It's hard to figure out which things are important."

"They're all important," says Baekhyun. "You should pay attention to everything."

"Hmmm," says Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun's sleepy enough to give into temptation and fluff Kyungsoo's hair, soft strands sliding easily between his fingers. Kyungsoo bats lightly at his hand, giving Baekhyun a wary look. 

"Would you like to go to the tangerine grove today?" Baekhyun asks. "We can take the scooter if you're not up to the walk."

Kyungsoo dips the spoon back in the broth, and holds it up to Baekhyun's mouth. Baekhyun obediently opens his lips for a taste. "Yes," he says.

As Baekhyun swallows the stew broth, he closes his eyes. It's weird, he thinks. He's been living alone so long now, with just guests he greets one evening and then says goodbye to on the following morning, that having someone awake here before him, moving around the house and breathing life into it before he even opens his eyes, is like… It's like a warm blanket across his lap on a chilly afternoon. He opens his eyes again. "Not enough salt."

Kyungsoo makes a noise of disapproval. "That's because Jejudo food is all salty. I think you've killed your taste buds."

"We like our food to taste like the sea," says Baekhyun, laughing. He rubs at his eyes. When he drops his hand, Kyungsoo is staring at him oddly. "What?" 

The tips of Kyungsoo's ears go red, and he averts his gaze. "And for your clothes to smell like it, and the wind, too."

"Yes," Baekhyun says. "You're in the territory of the Dragon King now." He grins, and Kyungsoo turns down the gas. The red tinge fades from his ears, and Baekhyun can still taste the broth on the back of his tongue. "It's good," he says. "The stew."

"Rice is in the cooker," replies Kyungsoo. 

Over breakfast, Kyungsoo is quiet, and so Baekhyun fills the silence, teasing smiles out of his dining companion, ankles brushing Kyungsoo's under the tables.

"You're so fidgety," Kyungsoo says, as Baekhyun winds down on a story about how he and Jongdae had followed Soojung on her first date, trying to be sneaky only to be confronted by her later, their heads knocked together in her wrath.

"That's the real reason I was always sent out of class, no matter what Soojung tells you," says Baekhyun. "It distracted our teacher."

"It distracts me too." Kyungsoo takes a bite of rice. "I can't look at anything but you."

"That's the way I like it," says Baekhyun. "I should be the star of a drama."

"More like a sideshow act," Kyungsoo says, when he's swallowed his rice.

"You love it," Baekhyun says around a mouthful of kimchi, purposefully rubbing his ankle against Kyungsoo's.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, then fixes them on his stew. "Stop talking with your mouth full," he says, but he doesn't pull his legs back, leaving them linked with Baekhyun's under the table.

⚘❁⚘

"I really appreciate the help, boys," Soojung's mother says, handing them each a canvas bag. "Don't fill it too much, or you'll strain your shoulders." She smiles at them with Soojung's eyes. "Baekhyunnie, show your guest how to cut the tangerines from the branch without hurting himself."

"Right, right," Baekhyun says, taking his canvas bag and punching down at the bottom to create a flat surface. Kyungsoo mimics him, and Soojung's mother laughs, handing them each a pair of gloves. 

"It's easy," she says. "Just be careful with the knife. I have shears, if you'd prefer."

"That's a good idea," Baekhyun says. 

"The knife will be fine." Kyungsoo pulls the worn pocketknife out of the pocket of his coat, where he'd put it a few minutes ago when Soojung's mom had handed it to him from the farm cart. 

It's the purple safety plastic one, and if Baekhyun recalls correctly, it was Sooyeon's, back when they were younger. Sooyeon had been the one to teach Baekhyun how to cut the gamgyul loose, as seven-year-old Soojung had trailed behind them, her hair cropped short back then, and she'd been put out about not being quite old enough to help. _"You'll get the hang of it quickly,"_ Sooyeon had said. _"My mom says you already are good with gutting fish—this smells much nicer than that."_

When Kyungsoo and Baekhyun are left to their own devices, Baekhyun takes Kyungsoo to a back part of the grove, where the low trees are laden with unharvested fruit. "Looks like no one's been back here in a month."

"That can't be good for profit," says Kyungsoo.

"Both of the Jung kids are gone," Baekhyun says. "Sooyeon and Soojung both went to university. Soon, Soojung's moving abroad. She wants to go study marine biology in California, or something, I dunno." Baekhyun shrugs, setting his bag down on the ground between his feet. "So it's just Soojung's mom and dad, and then they pay the local kids to help out."

"And you and Jongdae," Kyungsoo says. Baekhyun chuckles.

"You think we're not still kids? We're considered kids until we have kids of our own."

"I've been an adult since I went to college," Kyungsoo says. "And I wouldn't have taken kindly to anyone implying I wasn't."

"Ah, it's not so bad," says Baekhyun. "Kids can get away with a lot of things adults can't, because we're still kids." He takes out his knife. "I'm supposed to tell you not to cut toward yourself, when you cut the oranges, but that'd make me a hypocrite." He grabs a branch that's level with his chest and cuts off three gamgyul in quick succession, catching all three with his left hand, his fingers barely long enough to hold them. Then he sets them in the bag. "You need to set the bottom layer, so that the tangerines don't get all squished hitting the ground, but after you get a few deep you can just drop them into the bag on top of the others."

Kyungsoo nods, setting down his bag. He scratches at his hair, one index finger, and Baekhyun studies him for a moment, in his jeans and black coat and black sneakers, his hair dark against pale skin. He looks out of place here, among the gamgyul, with his delicate grip on the knife and his small square hands that don't fill the fingertips of the gardening gloves.

"This is the perfect kind of fruit picking for you," Baekhyun continues, grabbing another branch and gently pulling it toward him. A green leaf tickles at his nose, and he sneezes. "All the trees are short like you. Just the right height." He smiles teasingly at Kyungsoo, even though Kyungsoo isn't looking at him, knowing the other man will hear it in his voice. 

"You're just the right height for me to punch you in the kidney," Kyungsoo replies, slanting his face toward Baekhyun's. His lips twitch. 

"You've still got time to grow," Baekhyun says, with false lament, and Kyungsoo surprises him by smacking his arm. "Wow, you're like a wasp, so small, so dangerous."

"I have a knife," says Kyungsoo, easily, and Baekhyun laughs. 

"All right, all right," Baekhyun says. "Your height is perfectly fine. Actually, when we were in high school, the guy who got the most girls was around your height." Minseok has always, _always_ had girls half in love with him. Soojung had been unbearable when she'd had a thing for him, although part of that might have been Baekhyun wishing she would pay more attention to him. "Make sure you cut close to the fruit, though, you don't really want to cut too much of the branch."

"Okay," Kyungsoo says.

As they work, Baekhyun tells Kyungsoo about how in middle school, he and Jongdae had spent hours here on the weekend, earning money to buy games for their Gameboy Colors and because Jongdae's mom was tired of them getting underfoot. "Jongdeok—that's Jongdae's brother—he was dating one of Sooyeon's friends at the time, so he was always here too." Baekhyun laughs. "This place was full of kids earning pocket money in exchange for clearing out the groves of ripe tangerines. The best part is that the tangerines keep growing until near the end of December, and there's only three months where it's too cold for them, so even Jongdeok would sometimes fill a bag or two, if he wanted money to take his girlfriend on a date." 

"What about your brother?" Kyungsoo is working at half the pace Baekhyun is, and he does cut away from himself with the knife, the way he's supposed to.

"Baekbeom…" Baekhyun stops, and folds closed his knife, putting it in his jeans pocket. Then he grabs his back with both hands, and leans back in a stretch. "He was too busy studying, usually. He got really into studying, back when…" He licks his teeth, running his tongue across their surface. "Well, back when we moved in with Grandma." He drops his arms, looking at the bags. His is almost half full, and Kyungsoo's is getting there. "So he never had time to come out and play with us."

Baekbeom had always been so different from Baekhyun. He'd never…

"I studied a lot too," Kyungsoo says. "Not a lot of friends, so…"

"Did your parents put a lot of pressure on you with academics or…" Baekhyun squats down and starts to rifle through Kyungsoo's bag of tangerines. Maybe if he doesn't look at Kyungsoo, he won't do that hedgehog thing. 

"No," Kyungsoo says. "My father is an art restorer, and my mom teaches dance." He drops another two tangerines into the bag. "They don't really care what I do, as long as it's my passion."

Baekhyun takes off his gloves, palms a smaller gamgyul, and stands. "So the apartment building thing. Is that your passion?"

Kyungsoo frowns, and watches him with round eyes. "What are you doing, Baekhyun?"

"One of your tangerines," he says, stabbing his thumbnail through the navel and quickly peeling it. "Taste tests are a necessary part of gamgyul picking."

"That's another Baekhyun rule, isn't it?"

Baekhyun lets the peel fall to the ground, and breaks the tangerine in half. It's a good one, with not much stringy white remnants of growth between the slices, and seeds in only some of them. "Try it," he says, holding a piece up to Kyungsoo's lips. Kyungsoo takes it, his eyes on Baekhyun's, and his lips brush Baekhyun's fingers as he takes the fruit between his teeth. He eats the tangerine slice, still holding on to Baekhyun's gaze, and belatedly, Baekhyun realizes he can drop his hand. "Doesn't it taste better when you've picked it yourself?"

Kyungsoo's tongue darts out to lick his lips, and Baekhyun's stomach clenches. His fingers are warm, from just that brief touch of Kyungsoo's lips, and he curls his hand into a fist as he holds the rest of the gamgyul in the other. "It does," says Kyungsoo, so softly. "Much better."

Baekhyun can feel a heat crawling up his neck, and he suddenly breaks their shared gaze, looking back down at the fruit. He takes his own slice of it, and eats it in one bite. It's sweeter than usual, he thinks. A lot sweeter.

He takes a deep breath, and offers Kyungsoo the other half of the tangerine. "Split it with me?"

"Sure," says Kyungsoo. He pulls off his gloves and takes it, carefully. He starts to pull the pieces apart, pushing them easily into his mouth, one after another, cheeks bulging. Baekhyun doesn't know why he can't look away.

"I really do like these better," Kyungsoo says. "Than the ones I get in Seoul." He eats the last slice and licks his lips again. "The taste is different."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. There's a gust of wind, and it tosses his hair into his eyes. He tries to blow it out of his face, but he's less than successful, and Kyungsoo laughs, a full laugh, deep and throaty and enough that Baekhyun can only stare at him, surprised at the sound. 

Kyungsoo's grinning. "That's not going to work," he says. He reaches out with his cleaner hand, the one less sticky from gamgyul, and pushes Baekhyun's hair out of his face. His fingers drag through the strands, and Baekhyun's breath catches in his throat at how close Kyungsoo is standing, the toes of his shoes bumping Baekhyun's as he cards through his hair, parting it with his fingers so it lies on either side of his forehead but doesn't obscure his vision. "That's better."

"Thanks," Baekhyun says. 

Kyungsoo steps back then, and puts his gloves back on. He lifts up his bag. "Are these full enough?" he asks, and Baekhyun shakes his head.

"Not quite," he says. His voice is scratchy, so he tries again. "Not quite. We have to get them full enough that Soojung's mom doesn't have to re-bag them later. I'll help you figure out the right weight."

"Okay," Kyungsoo says. "I guess we should keep picking, then?" 

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. He still has almost half of the tangerine in his hand, and he quickly eats it all at once, juice sliding down his face. He wipes his chin with the back of his hand. Then he lifts his own bag. "Back to work."

"I like picking tangerines, too," Kyungsoo says, after a while of standing side by side, grabbing gamgyul by twos and threes from lower hanging branches if they've reached a full orange color. "I can do this and think at the same time."

"I usually do this a lot in the early winter," says Baekhyun. "It's always given me something to do with my hands while my mind wanders."

Kyungsoo looks at him. "It's funny," he says. "I usually keep myself so busy I don't have time to think, but out here, it's all I do."

"Is that a bad thing?" Sometimes it is, for Baekhyun. Sometimes, as he's mopping floors or hanging clothes or watering the plants, he starts thinking about all sorts of things he'd rather not think about. Sometimes, up in the guesthouse, when he's all alone, Baekhyun feels like it's haunted, and that the ghosts of his grandmother and Yixing and Baekbeom are waiting in different rooms to remind him that now he lives there all alone. "Because I can always keep distracting you, if you ask nicely."

"I don't have to ask," says Kyungsoo. "You'd do it regardless." Baekhyun makes a victory sign, and Kyungsoo cuts another tangerine from a branch. Instead of dropping it into his bag, he throws it softly at Baekhyun's chest. It bounces off harmlessly and falls to the ground. "Annoying." 

"You're really cute when you smile," says Baekhyun. "You should do it more often."

"I only smile when I mean it," replies Kyungsoo. He hefts his bag again, comparing his and Baekhyun's. 

Baekhyun shoves his hands back in his gloves. The red rubber on the inside of the thumb has a small hole in it. He'll need to be more careful with his knife. "Guess I've got my work cut out for me, then."

Kyungsoo's hands have become surer. He's clipping the gamgyul faster now, and dropping them into his bag without looking. Not so out of place, then, after all. 

"Guess you do," Kyungsoo says, and he drops another three tangerines in the bag.

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun sets his netbook on his desk, plugging it in before he turns it on. The battery doesn't hold much of a charge anymore, and it only takes a few minutes for the power bar to race down to red. Then he switches on the router, and plugs the ethernet cable in. 

He doesn't use the netbook for much. Just keeps guesthouse records on it, and connects his mp3 player every month to scrobble new music. He also uses it to check his e-mail. 

He's owed Yixing an e-mail for going on three weeks now, and tonight, now that Kyungsoo has barricaded himself into his room with a bowl full of tangerines, a mug of coffee, and his plans, Baekhyun has no more excuses.

It's not that he doesn't like writing to Yixing. The truth is, Baekhyun doesn't much like writing anything. He wishes he could call Yixing, and he does, sometimes, when they both managed to make a date two weeks in advance. Yixing is so busy now. He plays in a band with some of his friends from college, and he spends his nights in composing music in apartments all around Beijing with his roommate Lu Han, who seems to dote on him pretty insistently, the same way everyone does once they get to know him. He seems happy, in all in his busyness, and so Baekhyun writes e-mails in simple Korean about his mundane days and waits for Yixing's far more exciting replies. 

Or maybe it _is_ that Baekhyun doesn't like writing to Yixing, because writing to Yixing always makes Baekhyun remember when he still lived here, keeping Baekhyun up way too late at night playing melancholy songs on his guitar and singing made up Korean translations of the Chinese lyrics with his extremely round vowels and strangely metered conjugations.

Baekhyun misses Yixing the most when he writes him e-mails.

Still, three weeks is longer than he usually puts off replying, even if he has been occupied with his guest. 

His web browser takes an eternity to load. The internet is almost as bad as the cell phone reception, but it works, mostly. It's just slow. Baekhyun impatiently clicks his nails on the edge of his desk. When it finally loads, he logs into his e-mail. Three spam messages, and another one from Yixing. 

He clicks it open. It just says _heyo heyo are you alive dongsaeng_ , and Baekhyun laughs.

The e-mail he writes to Yixing is longer and more scatterbrained than usual. _I have a guest_ he writes. _In the winter. Random, right?_ He describes Kyungsoo: the way he'd looked when he showed up, all slick in his suit and his gelled back hair. _Like a chaebol from one of those dramas we watched, hyung. It was so bizarre._

He tells Yixing about today, about picking gamgyul in Soojung's family grove, and about teaching Kyungsoo how to hang laundry on an outdoor line. He laughingly mentions Kyungsoo teaching him how to not burn the edges of his eggs. Finally, he winds down to talking about hiking with Kyungsoo up to the halmang-dang.

 _It was odd,_ Baekhyun says, fingers hesitating over the keys. _Even though I haven't gone up there--_ he stares at the screen _\--in a while, I felt like I should take him there. Because he reminds me of you._ Those first few weeks, anyway, when Yixing smiled and said thank you and sang as he watered the herbs growing in the front of the guesthouse but somehow never seemed completely there. _Yeah. So anyway, this winter is more interesting than last winter. And definitely better than that weirdo hiker that showed up with a deer on a leash a few months ago._

He sends the e-mail, and then stretches his arms above his head. He's thirsty, so he heads to the kitchen to get water. He ends up heating water, instead, and pouring cocoa powder into it. After a moment of deliberation, he pulls down a second mug, and mixes it for Kyungsoo, taking extra time to break up the lumps with his spoon because Kyungsoo would probably freak out if the texture was uneven. 

Carefully walking with both mugs, he goes back out into the hallway and shuffles down to Kyungsoo's door. Both of his hands are taken, so he can't knock. He starts to call Kyungsoo's name, but he pauses when he hears a sweet melody coming from the other side of the door. At first, he thinks it's the radio, but there's no music. It's just Kyungsoo, he realizes, singing the song Baekhyun had sung while they hung the laundry. 

Baekhyun just stands there and listens, for a minute. All the things Baekhyun likes about Kyungsoo's speaking voice are magnified in his singing voice. The hot chocolate mugs are warm against his palms. 

When Kyungsoo tapers off, Baekhyun clears his throat. "Kyungsoo? I made hot chocolate~!"

The door opens, and Kyungsoo is looking up at him owlishly. He's wearing a sweatshirt, but just his underwear, black and tight and stopping just above mid-thigh. His legs are more toned than Baekhyun had expected, and he quickly looks up, back to Kyungsoo's face, and forces his gaze to stay there. He holds out one mug, the better mixed one. "I knew you were still awake since your light was still on." 

Kyungsoo takes the mug. "Thank you," he says. He takes a sip. Baekhyun looks past him, and there's nothing on the floor now. He looks over at the desk, and the rolls are covering the surface. "Was that all?"

"Do you want another desk?" Baekhyun wrinkles his nose, gripping his mug with both hands. "I could bring in the one from my brother's room." He laughs. "Not like he uses it. You could push the two together and then you'd have a bigger surface to work on."

Taking another long sip from the mug, Kyungsoo watches Baekhyun over the rim. Baekhyun feels strangely hot under that stare, a slow creeping heat that starts in his gut and climbs up his chest like malojumdae vines, coating the insides of his ribs. 

"You have a pretty voice," Baekhyun blurts out. "When you sing. I mean, when you speak, too, but when you sing, it's…" He laughs, feeling silly. "Sorry. I guess."

"I would like another desk," Kyungsoo says. "If it's not too much trouble." He's giving Baekhyun an amused grin when he lowers the mug. 

"We can do it tomorrow, if you want. No sweat." Baekhyun scratches at his belly and tightens his grip on his mug. "Maybe a little sweat, actually. These old desks are pretty heavy. I think my grandfather made them. If not, his father did. They're sturdy."

"This guesthouse is steeped in your family's history," Kyungsoo says. "That's really, well, nice."

"It is nice," says Baekhyun. Kyungsoo leans his weight against the doorframe. Kyungsoo's calves are round, and hairless. Baekhyun thinks he might have burned the roof of his mouth drinking his chocolate too quickly. "Oh, and the router is turned on, if you wanted to send some e-mail or whatever? The wireless _should_ work, but you know how it is, this place is a dead-zone, and eventually we'll all be on the smart-grid system I guess but we're not there now so… So if the wi-fi doesn't work, just come into my room and you can use the ethernet cable."

"Sure," Kyungsoo says. Baekhyun slips his hand into his pocket and bites down on his lower lip as Kyungsoo takes another sip. "Thank you for the hot chocolate."

"No problem," says Baekhyun. "Really."

Kyungsoo starts to close the door, but then he stops. "Baekhyun, I…"

"Yeah?" 

"I really like this place," he says. "Your guesthouse." There's an unspoken ‘you' implied that makes Baekhyun want to beam, so he does. Kyungsoo looks taken aback, but he offers a genuine grin in return. 

"It likes you," Baekhyun says. "Especially the stove. The stove is really temperamental." He laughs again, too loudly for late evening, but it's not jarring, this time. Kyungsoo seems to soak it up, his spines completely retracted for the evening. 

Baekhyun returns to his room and lies down on his bedding, setting down his mostly empty mug of chocolate and picking up his _Learn Chinese!_ book from his desk, sprawling out on his belly to read lesson three. He falls asleep on the first page. When he wakes up, he's covered with his blankets, and his book has been closed and rests neatly beside him. The mug, when he looks up, is gone from his desk.

He figures Kyungsoo must have had to use the ethernet cord, in the end. Still, he hadn't had to cover Baekhyun with a blanket. Groggily, Baekhyun doesn't think too hard about the flash of giddiness that makes his heart beat faster, just lets himself fall back asleep.  



	2. Chapter 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

⚘❁⚘

It's another warmish day.

Baekhyun had woken up rolled in the cocoon of his blankets, and in the kitchen, when he'd gone in to get some water, both chocolate mugs from last night were washed and drying on a fresh dishtowel set beside the sink.

When Kyungsoo wakes up, sleepy-eyed and groggy, Baekhyun pushes a cup of instant coffee at him and says: "Thanks for the blankets."

"Do you know," Kyungsoo replies, voice still rough, "that even in your sleep, you wiggle around and make noise?"

After a quick breakfast, Baekhyun hurries Kyungsoo into getting dressed. "Jeans," he says. "Otherwise you'll regret it."

Kyungsoo looks suspiciously at Baekhyun's scooter, but Baekhyun winks at him and smiles. "This will be way more convenient than that big luxury car of yours."

"Is that thing even made for two people?" Kyungsoo gingerly steps closer, running his hand along the welding line where Minseok had repaired some tree damage a couple of years ago. The scooter is older than the five years Baekhyun's driven it, since Baekbeom had used it for five years before that.

"Jongdae and I ride like this all summer," Baekhyun says. "Now come on, it's not a long ride."

Climbing on to the scooter behind Baekhyun, Kyungsoo moves forward until his thighs are gripping Baekhyun's hips. It's a different pressure to when Jongdae does it, because Kyungsoo's thighs are thicker and softer. Not that Baekhyun should be paying attention to that. "Don't we need helmets or something?"

"I won't drive fast," Baekhyun says. "I've got helmets, but we don't need them for a trip like this."

"That's reckless," Kyungsoo says.

"Live dangerously," Baekhyun says. "That's my motto."

"Live," Kyungsoo fires back. "That's mine."

Chuckling, Baekhyun gets off the scooter, sending Kyungsoo sliding into his seat. "Okay," he says. "Hold on." He walks back toward the waterproof storage box he keeps sitting by the front door and twists the latch before pulling the lid up. Inside, he's got helmets, black ones. _"Don't you dare go riding that dangerous thing without a helmet,"_ his grandmother had said. _"Life is short enough."_

He puts on his own head and takes the other one back to Kyungsoo, who takes it and fastens it securely under his chin before narrowing his eyes at Baekhyun. "Come here," he says. He fastens Baekhyun's helmet, too, as Baekhyun grins at him, his fingers tickling Baekhyun's chin as his nose scrunches in concentration.

"You have the cutest thinking face." Kyungsoo scowls at him, dropping his hands, although Baekhyun still feels the phantom brush of them. "And hands. Your hands are so cute."

"I'm an adult," Kyungsoo says. "Adults aren't cute."

"How do you explain that face, then?" Baekhyun reaches up and uses his thumb to smooth out the wrinkle between Kyungsoo's eyebrows, and then sits back down on the scooter, wiggling backward until he's firmly between Kyungsoo's thighs. He turns the ignition, and swallows as Kyungsoo's arms wrap around his middle, hands linking on Baekhyun's stomach. "Hold on tight," he says, and then they're off.

Baekhyun drives out to the Coastal Highway. It's empty, really, only one truck driving along 1132 as they wind down along the coast. Baekhyun can feel Kyungsoo taking hitching breaths behind him, and he slows down enough that Kyungsoo starts to melt into him. He wants to ask Kyungsoo what he thinks of the view, but the engine in the scooter is too loud, and the wind isn't helping.

After about five kilometers, Baekhyun pulls off the main highway and slows, navigating onto an older paved road that leads uphill, back inland from the coast, away from the jagged cliffs that cut into the bright blue of the early winter sky.

Kyungsoo's grip relaxes even more, and at this speed, Baekhyun is really too aware of the press of the insides of Kyungsoo's knees on the outsides of his thighs and his chest to Baekhyun's back.

He comes to a stop in a small parking lot, stashing his scooter next to Chanyeol's beat up truck because he knows Chanyeol's not going to leave before him and crush it. The wind starts up again as Kyungsoo climbs off the scooter. Baekhyun exhales at the loss of warmth, but then Chanyeol is ambling over to them, all long arms and overwide smile.

"Baekhyunnie, are you wearing a helmet?" Chanyeol laughs. "Man, oh man, I should take a picture and send it to my sister. She threw a fit when I told her you never wear them to drive up here."

"Kyungsoo thinks I'm reckless," Baekhyun says. "I'm going to take him cliff diving as revenge."

"If you think I'm going to dive off a cliff," Kyungsoo says, "in December, you are clearly not thinking logically."

"He's teasing you, Kyungsoo," says Chanyeol. "Baekhyun's a huge wimp about cold water. Now if Jongdae had said it, then you'd have to be worried."

"I'm not a wimp," Baekhyun says. "The ocean's just so cold." There are stronger whirlpools, too, that'll suck a swimmer under and make it impossible to swim back up again. And in winter, night comes earlier. The searchlights don't help when the ocean has gone black and murky with the evening tide. "It's not safe."

"Safety doesn't seem a priority for you," Kyungsoo says. He's holding his helmet with both hands, and he pointedly jostles it.

"That's not dangerous," Baekhyun says, waving one hand as he undoes the fastening under his chin with the other. "Scooters are better when you can feel the air."

Baekhyun takes off his helmet, and the wind immediately starts tousling his hair. Chanyeol laughs as Baekhyun tries in vain to get it out of his eyes.

"Come see the new ponies," Chanyeol says. "You haven't gotten to meet them yet."

"Oh, they came in last week, right?" He drops his helmet into the bed of Chanyeol's truck, and then takes Kyungsoo's and does the same with it. Kyungsoo has helmet hair, and his cheeks are still red from the ride. He immediately shoves his hands into the pockets when Baekhyun relieves him of the helmet.

"Right," Chanyeol says. "They were driven down here from just outside Gangjeong." He's got on a sweatshirt with the hood up, but he pulls it down when they approach the old yellow stable house. The paint is chipping, and the faded green of the doors and the roof show their age. "That's where they're trying to build that new U.S. military base."

"Gangjeong," says Baekhyun, "is one of the villages that survived the uprising. Honestly, there weren't that many. It's like Jeolbyeog-ri, too, where most of the residents have spent their whole lives there, just like their parents, and their parents."

"If they build the base there, the whole town'll be demolished," Chanyeol says. "They closed several trails out there, and they're sending the horses over here. Some of them we'll let roam, but we've got to be careful with them, since there's already a herd." He undoes the padlock with the key he has hanging from a curly plastic wristlet, and lets them in to the stable. "Others are already well-trained riding ponies."

Chanyeol walks ahead of them, probably to go get saddles and other gear, leaving Baekhyun and Kyungsoo to walk up to the edge of the fence alone. Kyungsoo rests his arms over the fence, and he peers at the pony with that wide-eyed expression that Baekhyun hasn't quite figured out yet.

"Have you ever ridden before?" Baekhyun asks. The stable is more like a big indoor pen. Baekhyun's favorite pony trots over when he whistles, pressing her wet nose to his cheek.

The noise also summons one of the herding dogs, who chooses to bestow attention on Kyungsoo instead, weaving in between his legs and whacking his tail against Kyungsoo's thigh. Kyungsoo laughs and squats down to pet him thoroughly, hands disappearing into slightly matted fur as he dodges the dog's tongue.

Baekhyun really likes the way Kyungsoo laughs. It's not loud, and sometimes he doesn't make any noise at all, but his whole face lights up, his eyes squinting and his cheeks pulling. It's adorable.

"Once," Kyungsoo says, "but that was back when I was living abroad." He's pushed back onto his butt by the dog, and this time, he does laugh aloud, showing all of his teeth. "When I was eleven, or something. Too long ago to count."

Baekhyun offers him a hand up, and Kyungsoo takes it, allowing Baekhyun to pull him up. Baekhyun is just letting go as Chanyeol returns. "Baekhyun, you're going out on Mocha, right?"

"Right," Baekhyun says, as Chanyeol hands him a saddle. "Who are you going to give to Kyungsoo?"

Chanyeol hops the fence, walking to the other side of the pen until he stops in front of a small brown pony with grey in her mane. She follows him obediently when he slips her a piece of fruit, and he rests his large hand on her nose. "This is Seonggye," he says. "Don't you think the colors of her coat look like a sea urchin?" Seonggye sniffs, butting Chanyeol's hand with her nose until he gives her another piece of fruit. "Anyway, she's a brat, but you're staying with Baekhyun, so you should be used to that."

"What are you implying?" Baekhyun asks, as Mocha stamps a hoof.

"He's not implying anything," says Kyungsoo, "so much as stating outright."

"She won't throw you," Chanyeol says. "She's a good pony for a first-timer."

When they've gotten Kyungsoo on his horse, out on the circular practice track, and Chanyeol's saddled up the largest mount at the stable, Baekhyun edges Mocha up beside Kyungsoo. "Are you nervous?"

"Not really," says Kyungsoo. He adjusts the red vest that they're all required to wear when they go out on the ponies, so they can find each other against the backdrop of the trees. "I probably… won't fall."

"Maybe you'd feel safer if I went and got your helmet?" Kyungsoo reaches out like he's going to punch Baekhyun in the arm, and leans too far to the right, losing his balance. Baekhyun catches him, pushing at his shoulder. "No violence on horseback."

"You make it so hard." Kyungsoo smiles, though, even when Seonggye shifts impatiently under him. "I want to hit you so often."

"But I'm so charming," Baekhyun jokes, and Chanyeol laughs.

Chanyeol's ears are turning slightly pink from the wind. It's windier than Baekhyun had thought it would be, today, but it's not too cold to spend the day outside, so he doesn't really mind. "Baekhyun has a harem of older women," Chanyeol tells Kyungsoo. "They pinch his cheeks and buy him candy."

"You're just jealous," Baekhyun says, "that you lack my natural charisma." He starts leading Mocha around the circular track at a slow pace, and Kyungsoo follows. "Plus there's nothing wrong with a nice older woman."

"Maybe someday Kim Taeyeon will fall for you," Chanyeol says over his shoulder, and Baekhyun pulls a face at him. "She's an older woman, too."

"Who is Kim Taeyeon?" Kyungsoo asks. He grips the reins carefully, like he's afraid to be too harsh with Seonggye. Every once in a while, as they circle the track, he pats her neck, whispering things Baekhyun can't hear at her, and it makes Baekhyun's stomach feel melty.

"Baekhyunnie's one true love," says Chanyeol, and Baekhyun sighs.

"She's already in love with me," Baekhyun says. "She just doesn't know it yet."

"Just because she laughs at your aegyo, doesn't mean she wants to date you."

"You'll see," Baekhyun says, wanting to sound mysterious but knowing it comes out petulant. Really, he isn't sure he still even cares if Taeyeon ever notices him. It's just that he's liked her for so long he doesn't really know how to… not like her. Following her with his eyes is an unfortunate habit, like how he can't stop himself from popping his zits when they come up on his neck, or digging his toes into Jongdae's bony thighs when he's trying to read.

"I think Kyungsoo can handle the trail," Chanyeol says. "We should head out before it gets too late."

"Didn't you say you were leading a group?" Kyungsoo asks. "Where are they?"

"Oh, Jinri's on shift this morning." Chanyeol scratches his cheek. "I'd forgotten the schedule was different this week when I talked to you about dates, so…"

"You came in just for us?" Baekhyun asks. "Aw, Chanyeol, you shouldn't have. Really. Kyungsoo probably would've rather spent three hours with Jinri's face instead of yours." Baekhyun turns to Kyungsoo. "Anyone would, really, considering."

Chanyeol gives Baekhyun a cheeky grin that makes Baekhyun want to pull on his ears. "I'm sorry to disappoint you."

"No you're not," replies Baekhyun.

"It's been a while since we went out riding together." Chanyeol doubles back, so he can correct Kyungsoo's grip on the reins. "Besides, this is probably one of the last beautiful mornings until spring, so what better way is there to spend it?"

"In bed," Baekhyun replies. "Like normal people."

"Like _you're_ normal," says Chanyeol, pulling his hood back up and leading the way out onto the grass.

There's no real path for the ponies. Chanyeol had told Baekhyun once, when they'd been out riding with Jongdae and Jinri, that the ponies know better than he does where to step. Jinri had made some comment that Chanyeol doesn't even know where he's putting his own feet, and so no one needs to give him four more.

They keep a sedate pace. There are markers as they go, blue metal horses that let them know where they are so they don't lose their way in the hills. The scent of camellias is in the wind, and every breath Baekhyun takes is fresh and tinted with it. He can see Mt. Halla from here. Not clearly, like he would from higher ground, or from the coast near Seongsan, but the tip of it, white with snow despite the bright green grass underfoot.

"This isn't exactly a beginners trail," Chanyeol says, as the horses start to veer down closer to the coast, "but the view is amazing, and Baekhyunnie and I won't let you fall."

Mocha steps over the rocks easily, as does Seonggye, and Kyungsoo's white-knuckled grip on the reins eases more and more the further out onto the trail they get. He starts to look around, at the trees and at the ponies with no riders as they go. He lags slightly behind Baekhyun and Chanyeol, but he doesn't seem to mind just listening to their conversation. Still, Baekhyun wants to include him. Wants to make Kyungsoo laugh.

Chanyeol catches him looking back and stops in the middle of his story about an excited child who'd tried feeding Chanyeol's horse a piece of sugar and had gotten sneezed on for her trouble.

"Hey, Kyungsoo," Chanyeol says, and Kyungsoo's head snaps toward Chanyeol, like he'd been a million light-years away, "did Baekhyunnie tell you how we met?"

"Chanyeol almost trampled me," Baekhyun says, nudging Mocha rightward so that Kyungsoo can ride up right between them.

"I didn't see him at all," Chanyeol says. "I was on Makki here," he pats the horse's flank, "and tiny little Baekhyun—"

"Watch the height jokes," says Baekhyun. "Kyungsoo's sensitive."

"I'm _not_ sensitive," Kyungsoo says, "but I'm also not above throat punching."

"You're not above _anything_ , down there at one hundred sixty-five centimeters," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo makes a weird note in the back of his throat.

"I'm one-seventy," he says, lowly, and Baekhyun lets the reins rest across his thighs so he can hold up both hands defensively.

"Right," Baekhyun says, batting his eyelashes. "My mistake."

Kyungsoo makes a tiny growling noise, and Chanyeol, barely hiding a laugh, goes back to his story.

"Anyway, I had Makki going at a gallop toward the stable, because I was running late to meet Jongdae's friend, and I'd only just moved out here, you know? And Baekhyun was practically invisible—"

"I was wearing a Nexan baseball cap and red sneakers," says Baekhyun.

"You were wearing a grass-green shirt about thirty sizes too large for Shrek," Chanyeol says. "You were basically in Jeju camouflage."

"Whatever," says Baekhyun. "In summary, Chanyeol's horse almost squished me. My stomach would have come out of my nose."

"That's not anatomically possible, Baekhyun. For that to happen, your stomach would need to be—"

"I don't really care," says Baekhyun. "That horse is almost as big as you are and I was in mortal peril."

Kyungsoo's mouth is twitching in his almost-smile. His gaze is flicking from Chanyeol to Baekhyun and back again. "Dramatic."

"Almost as dramatic as showing up in a Lexus in the middle of the night," Chanyeol says.

"It was definitely more dramatic, Chanyeol," Baekhyun says. "After all, Kyungsoo's arrival into my life didn't almost kill me."

"How long have you two known each other?"

"Too long," they both say, and this is usually where Chanyeol would make a grab for the back of Baekhyun's neck.

"Three years?" Chanyeol asks, and Baekhyun nods.

"Something like that," Baekhyun agrees. "Park Chanyeol, first person to move _to_ the area in a generation."

"Came here from Jeju-si to live with my aunt," Chanyeol says, "and so that I could work with the horses. Just outside the city, they keep the horses stabled in stalls and stuff. Not as much opportunity to train them or to work at all with the wild ponies."

Baekhyun pushes his hair out of his face and smiles. "And to meet me, of course."

"There had to be a downside to my dream job," Chanyeol says. "You win some, you lose some."

Baekhyun rolls his eyes and snorts, pointedly turning away from Chanyeol to focus on Kyungsoo, who's looking back at him. For a moment, Baekhyun forgets what he was going to say, flustered by the look on Kyungsoo's face, but then he shakes his head to clear out the cobwebs and grins. "At least Kyungsoo likes me."

"I'm not sure about that yet," says Kyungsoo. "You'll have to give me another few weeks to decide."

"Are you staying that long?" Chanyeol asks. His hood has fallen down again, and his hair is soft and ruffled. When Baekhyun had met Chanyeol, it had been an awful blond, but now it's back to its natural color, a soft black that makes Chanyeol's face look more mature.

"I am," Kyungsoo says. "I'm not in a big hurry to go home yet."

They pass through a few trees, nothing dense, and just past them are a herd of grazing horses. "That's a postcard shot," Chanyeol says. "Don't you think? There's another great view, just ahead."

They find that view, and Baekhyun realizes they're closer to the coast than he'd thought. If he squints, he can see his and Jongdae's inlet in the distance.

"We should be heading back soon," Chanyeol says. "I do have to take a tour group out in an hour, and I want time to eat lunch."

"Sure, sure," Baekhyun says, as Chanyeol turns Makki around, guiding her toward taller grass so she can graze.

Baekhyun presses in with his knees to make Mocha stop, and Kyungsoo follows suit.

"Sometimes I forget," Baekhyun says, because the silence makes him anxious, "what it looks like. Even in the winter, it's still—"

Kyungsoo puts his hand on Baekhyun's knee, and Baekhyun lets his words peter off. "Kyungsoo?" Kyungsoo's hand rests there, warm and sure, and Baekhyun's throat goes dry.

"It's beautiful," he says simply, and Baekhyun nods.

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. He looks out again, at the inlet, and at the ocean. It's frothy today, waves crashing into each other and frothing white. Fishermen are out on the rocks in waterproof, brightly colored jackets, rods extended as they try to catch fish for dinner. He can see a few divers, too, their floats bobbing in the water despite the roughness of the sea today. A cruise ship is out even further, too far for Baekhyun to make out if he's seen it before or not.

As much as he longs to go somewhere, and see the world, this will always be home. Sometimes he forgets, but moments like this help him remember. "Worthy of some poetry, you think? Where's my sijo verse?"

"You're a clown," Kyungsoo says, squeezing his knee once before letting go. "Didn't I tell you I wasn't into poetry?" He runs a hand through his hair again, in what Baekhyun has realized is Kyungsoo's way of fidgeting. Baekhyun wonders what he does when it's all gelled up like it had been that first night. Maybe when Kyungsoo is working, he doesn't fidget at all.

"What are you into, Kyungsoo?" Baekhyun puts his own hand where Kyungsoo's had just rested. His own hand is larger, overlapping the warm spot and swallowing it. "What do you like?"

"Prince of Tennis," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun laughs.

"Like the… anime?"

"Like the anime," Kyungsoo confirms.

"I was really asking about hobbies, but I guess that counts?" It's easier than he'd thought, imagining Kyungsoo sprawled on some expensive couch in a high-rise Seoul apartment building watching sports cartoons, with some impassive expression on his face. "Still, out of all the things you must like, you chose that one to tell me about?"

"To see the look on your face," Kyungsoo says. "I knew it would be good." He picks up the reins again. "We should catch up to Chanyeol, right?"

"Right," Baekhyun says, feeling oddly pleased at Kyungsoo's teasing. "We should." He nudges Mocha into action, and leans over and pats Seonggye, too. "Let's go, ladies."

As the three of them ride back toward the stable, Baekhyun can't seem to stop himself from continuously looking over at Kyungsoo, and remembering the weight of his hand on his knee. To distract himself, he sings the theme song to one of his favorite dramas, and Chanyeol joins in on the choruses. Kyungsoo chuckles at Baekhyun whenever Baekhyun forgets the lyrics, which is more often under the weight of Kyungsoo's stare.

Kyungsoo spends a long time saying goodbye to Seonggye, combing his hands through her mane and whispering to her.

"I like him," Chanyeol says, as he takes the saddle off Mocha. "Kyungsoo. I like him. I'm glad he's sticking around for awhile."

"You just think he plays well with your pets."

"He plays well with you, too," says Chanyeol. "So I like him."

"I like him too," Baekhyun says, wondering why the words taste so strange in his mouth.

⚘❁⚘

"I guess you don't want to move the desk now," says Baekhyun, leaning his back against the kitchen counter as Kyungsoo rests his head on the table. He's sitting with his legs spread out like Baekhyun usually does ("It's so gross," Soojung always tells him. "Stop taking up so much room."), instead of crossed like he usually sits when he's got a cup of coffee. "Are you sore?"

"If you're about to make a sexual joke," says Kyungsoo, "have mercy on me and just shut up."

Baekhyun chuckles into his hot chocolate. "I don't have mercy on anyone." The steam opens up all the pores in his cheeks, and he scrunches his nose up as he looks at Kyungsoo. "It's pretty common when you start riding, to get sore thighs and sore arms," he says, and Kyungsoo groans.

"Knowing that it's common definitely makes it hurt less," Kyungsoo says, muffled by his arm. "So thanks."

"I know what will help," Baekhyun says, as Kyungsoo stretches his toes out in front of him and flexes his feet at the ankles.

"Oh?" Kyungsoo looks up at him. The curve of his jaw is highlighted by the swinging overhead light, and it casts a shadow that draws Baekhyun's attention down from there, to the line of his neck.

"Give me twenty minutes," says Baekhyun, pushing off from the counter and setting his cup on the edge of the sink. "Don't wash that, I'll do it."

"Okay," Kyungsoo says, amused, and Baekhyun pulls on the neck of his tee.

"Go take a shower first," says Baekhyun. "Then meet me at the last room at the end of the hall."

Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at Baekhyun thoughtfully. "What are you up to?"

"Don't you trust me?" Baekhyun gives Kyungsoo his most angelic smile, but it just seems to alarm him.

"I've only known you two weeks," Kyungsoo says. "And you've taken me on a deceptively difficult hike more than three kilometers through a shrieking forest, tried to drive me around helmetless and make me cliff dive, and tried to teach me how to cut toward myself with a sharp knife."

It doesn't feel like it's been only two weeks. But they're only a few days into December. The next time it's cloudy, though, they'll have to worry about snow instead of rain.

"And hasn't it been a blast?" Baekhyun asks. "City boys, so weak." He wrinkles his nose. "Go take a shower."

Baekhyun leaves Kyungsoo in the kitchen to drag himself out of his chair, walking into the hallway and all the way down to the last door.

It's not a bedroom. It's actually not even part of the original house. It had been built when Baekhyun was maybe a first year in high school. He can't remember exactly. He only remembers Yixing temporarily moving his bedding into Baekhyun's room to save himself from the noise, and then just curling up in bed with Baekhyun in the mornings, his own blankets left in a heap behind Baekhyun's desk.

When he opens the door, he smiles. Everything's clean, from when he'd scrubbed everything down in the beginning of autumn, when it was still warm. The soft wood of the floor is cool under his feet, but it'll hold the heat eventually, when Baekhyun gets the tub filled up.

The soaking tub is big. In the early spring, Baekhyun always fills it up for the guests to use. The hikers in particular like it, because the hot water, along with the crushed seom ogalpi root bark and sap that Baekhyun's always added to it, eases sore muscles. It does more ingested, but it's effective like this, too.

He doesn't usually fill it in the winter, because when there's no one here there's really nothing to justify the waste of water, but it'll be just the thing for Kyungsoo's sore muscles.

By the time Kyungsoo comes into the room, mouth dropping open as he looks around, the tub is full and the wood-paneled room has filled with steam. The scent of the seom ogalpi is heady, and Baekhyun takes a deep breath of it, because it reminds him of the way his grandmother's neck had smelled when he'd hugged her, nuzzling his nose into the crook of her shoulder.

"Seom ogalpi is only found on Jeju," Baekhyun says. "You drink it, in tea, and it cures all kinds of things. It's basically magic."

"Oh," Kyungsoo says. "How scientific." He's toweled his hair dry carelessly, and it sticks up in every direction. He's wearing his black track pants and a black long sleeved shirt. All black, as usual. "I guess I shouldn't have gotten dressed."

Baekhyun puffs out his cheeks. "A waste of time, honestly." He stands up. "I'll leave you to it?"

"You're not going to stay?" Kyungsoo asks. He pulls his shirt up over his head, revealing the softness of his stomach, his ribs shifting under the skin. His hair's an even bigger mess afterwards.

"Do you… want me to?" Kyungsoo shrugs, like he doesn't care one way or the other, but it's obvious he's sizing up the tub, to see how comfortably two grown men can fit in it. "Yixing-hyung and I used to spend hours sitting in here," Baekhyun adds, answering a question Kyungsoo won't voice. "Yixing would tell me stories about where he grew up in China, and sometimes, when he talks, he forgets that he's supposed to be speaking Korean, and just rambles along in Chinese."

"Is that why you're studying Chinese?" Kyungsoo asks. Baekhyun gapes at him, then remembers the book Kyungsoo must have taken from his hands when he fell asleep last night.

"I mean…" Baekhyun shrugs. "I guess. I don't know. I'm not really good at learning like that. From books. Some stuff I can remember really easily—Chanyeol says I have a ‘selective event based memory'"—he wiggles his fingers—"whatever that means. He's always talking about shit I don't understand, like polar…indexes, or whatever."

"Polar indexes?" Kyungsoo's down to just his underwear, and he walks over to test the water. He dips his fingers in, and hisses. "This water is so hot."

"It's gotta be hot," Baekhyun says. "That's how it works."

"If I'm going to be a lobster in a pot," Kyungsoo says, "you have to join me." He avoids Baekhyun's eyes, and Baekhyun gets that it's an invitation, and he laughs. Kyungsoo's so odd, but it's refreshing, to deal with someone so different from the other people in his life. Kyungsoo is like a puzzle; the kind Baekhyun always solves faster than Chanyeol when they play games on their handhelds even though Chanyeol is so much smarter than he is.

"I'm going to go shower, then," Baekhyun says. "I'll be back in a minute."

After he's soaped and rinsed himself off in the bathroom across from his bedroom, he opens his door and throws his dirty clothes right into the middle of the floor. Then he goes into one of the hall closets and pulls out two of the larger towels, two big soft pale blue ones that don't get used much, since he mostly uses hand-towels for everything.

When he gets back to the sauna bath, the steam has gotten even thicker, and Kyungsoo's already in the water, his arms braced on the sides of the tub as he slowly eases himself in.

Baekhyun sets the towels down next to the tub, and checks the water for himself. It _is_ hot, but Baekhyun's always preferred to be hot instead of cold.

"Did you just walk naked down the hallway of your unlocked house?" Kyungsoo asks, finally sitting in the bottom of the tub. The water sloshes around his shoulders, and there's high color in his cheeks. Baekhyun narrows his eyes, trying to look more closely at his expression through the steam.

"What's the worst thing that could happen?" Baekhyun asks, stepping into the water. When he sits down, his knees bump Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo makes a tiny squeaking noise of surprise that has Baekhyun bursting into laughter. "That was so cute," Baekhyun says.

"I'd strangle you if I didn't hurt too much to come over there," Kyungsoo says.

"So I should get all my digs in now?"

"Don't push your luck," Kyungsoo says. Some of the steam lifts, and Baekhyun finally sees Kyungsoo's expression. It's soft and peaceful. The smell of the wood is mixing with the seom ogalpi now. "This really feels like Jejudo."

"That makes sense," Baekhyun says, "considering we're in Jejudo."

"I mean…" Kyungsoo sighs. "Never mind. It's silly." His hair is wet enough that it sticks when he pushes it back from his forehead. It completely changes the look of his face. He looks older and more serious, Baekhyun thinks. Like the man in the carefully tailored suit who'd checked in that Thursday night and not the man whose sweatshirt sleeves are too long for his arms.

"I say at least thirty silly things a day," Baekhyun says. "It keeps my life exciting."

"I meant that most of the jjimjilbangs in Seoul are… You can smell the herbs, in the bath, and the sauna rooms are scented, like sulfur or red coal, but…" Kyungsoo taps his fingers on the edge of the tub, in a consistent even rhythm, and then: "This just smells like the trees, and like the island smells. Like the ocean and…" He stops, and licks his lips.

"That wasn't silly at all," Baekhyun says. "It's how I feel, most of the time. Even when I want to go somewhere, and do something, anything other than this, I know that I love this place." He draws designs with his finger along the surface of the water. "That I love this island, even with all its ghosts."

"Its ghosts?" Kyungsoo asks. "Like the villagers in the trees?"

Baekhyun smiles, showing all of his teeth even as he rubs with the back of his hand at his dry eyes. The seom ogalpi water clings to his skin. "Something like that," he says.

It's surprisingly Kyungsoo who breaks the silence that falls between them.

"I don't spend much time like this," he says. "Doing nothing."

"Too busy?" Baekhyun asks. Everything about Kyungsoo strikes him as someone who is continuously busy telling other people what to do. He's got that edge of authority to his voice when he isn't paying attention, and this no-nonsense way of going about things, sometimes. "With your work?"

"I spend fourteen hours a day at the office," Kyungsoo says. "My mother is constantly telling me I'm going to go gray by the time I'm thirty, but she doesn't really understand how much there is to do."

Baekhyun tries to imagine Kyungsoo gray, and he'd look… well, Baekhyun doesn't think that would be a bad look, really.

"She probably just wants you to be happy?" Baekhyun shrugs. He doesn't know. But fourteen hour days sound longer than anything Baekhyun's ever done. He'd probably sit with his legs crossed too, if only so that the pins and needles of the leg on the bottom falling asleep would keep him awake. "Not that I'm implying you aren't happy, or anything, it's just…" Baekhyun hunches forward to blow ripples into the water. His insides feel sloshy from the heat, and he hadn't realized his thighs ached too until the soak had started to help. "So not a lot of time for casual tub soaking with charming gentlemen?" Baekhyun puts both hands up to frame his face, and Kyungsoo stares at him, amused.

"Probably not since I took sink baths as a baby," Kyungsoo says. "Although when a friend of mine from high school came to visit me in Seoul, I took him to a jjimjilbang. He felt kind of weird about it, though, I guess since we'd always avoided that sort of thing when we were living in Yokohama."

"I'm imagining baby Kyungsoo, right now," says Baekhyun, "escaping from his sink baths and using his freedom to begin organizing his toys in color order." The steam from the bath rises again as Baekhyun wriggles down, and Kyungsoo shifts, his calf rubbing across Baekhyun's. The water makes it slick, and Baekhyun loses track, for a second, of his sentence, before he barrels onward. "You probably didn't pick an item at your doljanchi, just crawled around and alphabetized them."

"I picked the thread at my one year ceremony," Kyungsoo says. "A long life." He slumps in the water. His face is red, as are his chest and narrow shoulders, where the too hot water scalds his skin. "When I was a kid, I wasn't so…" He closes his eyes. His eyelashes flutter, and they're so thick and dark at the root. When he sighs, the bathwater ripples. "I've taught myself to care about the details."

His shoulders curl forward oddly, and the skin pulls sharply across his collarbones. Drops of water drip down his neck from the damp ends of his hair as he looks down, going quiet. Baekhyun presses his tongue to the back of his teeth.

"I picked food," Baekhyun says. "At my one year ceremony. My dad always joked that I was just hungry." He watches as Kyungsoo chuckles, and relaxes again, then lifts his arm out of the water to examine his fingers. Baekhyun looks at his own. They're all pruned, now, wrinkled up from staying in the hot water too long. "How's the soreness?"

"Better," Kyungsoo says. "This was a good idea."

"When my grandmother got older, her arthritis got bad," Baekhyun says. "And her bone density was really light? It happens sometimes, to people who are divers for too long. It's just for soaking, and it's a pain to fill it with this brackish water, but…"

"Your grandmother was a haenyeo?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "This house wasn't always a guesthouse. The house has been here forever, but it used to just be family. When my grandparents got married, my grandfather had, like, a hundred people in his family, and they all lived in this house."

"A hundred people in nine rooms," Kyungsoo says. "Seems like a tight fit." That teasing quirk of his lips makes Baekhyun's chest squeeze.

"Anyway, they were fishing people, my grandfather's family. This village has always been a fishing village. It's not a completely sustainable way of life anymore, though."

"Ah," says Kyungsoo. "So when did this become a guesthouse?"

"Sometime in the 1980s," replies Baekhyun. "I'm not sure exactly when. It was after my mother got married and my grandmother stopped diving. They started getting a lot of people coming through the village—hikers, divers… occasionally tourists. Tourism was just becoming a thing, you know?" He shrugs, sloshing water out over the smooth wooden side of the tub. Kyungsoo's legs brush his again. "And my grandmother… well, she was living alone, mostly, but it's safe out here." He looks at his nails, which are getting just a little too long. "So a guesthouse. Not like anyone else was using the rooms."

Kyungsoo tilts his head slightly to the side, so Baekhyun elaborates.

"Everyone moved away," Baekhyun says. "Only my grandparents stayed, really. My uncle—my mom's brother—he lives in Busan. He hired Baekbeom, actually, to work at his law firm." Baekhyun's never been to visit. Every time he'd planned a trip, he'd gotten sidetracked by life: sickness, or responsibility, or whatever. Now, he doesn't really want to visit. The city maybe, but not his brother.

"My brother is a lawyer, too," Kyungsoo says, walking his fingers along the edge of the tub now. "He got all the personality from my parents." He smiles, fondly, and Baekhyun revises his opinion that Kyungsoo and his brother don't get along. He should stop projecting. Although, it isn't like Baekbeom and Baekhyun don't get along. People have to talk to each other to fight, don't they?

"I don't know about that," Baekhyun says. "You're quiet, but…" Kyungsoo slightly raises one eyebrow, and Baekhyun think about how much Kyungsoo conveys with even the slightest movements. "But you're funny, too. And you say a lot with so few words."

"I'm your opposite, then," Kyungsoo says. "Since you say so little with so many words."

"Hey," Baekhyun says, dipping his fingers just past the surface of the water and splashing lightly at Kyungsoo. "Play nice." A few droplets hit Kyungsoo's face, and he blinks in momentary shock before he judiciously retaliates, using his hands, cupped, to push forward and douse Baekhyun with a wave of water. Baekhyun sputters, rubbing at his eyes.

"I don't play nice," Kyungsoo says, as Baekhyun starts to laugh. The water is starting to cool, so he doesn't feel guilty at all when he shoves water back at Kyungsoo.

The battle quickly degenerates, until there's more water on the floor than in the tub, and Kyungsoo is laughing even as he rubs at his thighs below the water. He's up on his knees, now, and the water comes to just above his navel. His stomach is a pale, pretty pink with heat flush, and Baekhyun's mouth is so dry. "We should dry off," Baekhyun says. "We're sopping wet prunes."

"The soak really did help," Kyungsoo says. "With the sore muscles."

"I'm glad." He grabs one of the big towels from next to the tub. It's damp, mostly, soaked at the edge, but it's good enough to cover him as he gets out of the water. He wraps it around his waist, and then hands the other one to Kyungsoo, who stands and takes it as Baekhyun quickly glances away. "You're gonna ache in the morning, though."

"I feel like my whole stay so far has been like this," Kyungsoo says, fumbling with his towel. His hair flops forward when he drops his chin to glance down, and is sticking to his face and getting into his eyes, so Baekhyun, without thinking, reaches forward and pushes it out of his face again. Kyungsoo looks up quickly, and Baekhyun's hand slides down his cheek, so he quickly pulls back.

Kyungsoo's skin is so soft.

"Soaking wet?" Baekhyun asks, "or aching?" He laughs, but it's sticky in his chest, like ddeok that hasn't quite set.

"A long soak," Kyungsoo says. "Every day, the knots in my back and in my chest loosen, but when I wake up in the morning, they're back again, just as twisted and tight." He's prickly, shutting down before Baekhyun's eyes, and Baekhyun has to choose his next words carefully.

Baekhyun has always been good with hedgehogs. He'd learned how to deal with them back when he was a kid. He and Baekbeom would find them digging holes under the back step of the guesthouse, and Baekhyun would be the one to ease them, holding them in his hands until they stopped huffing, until they got used to his warmth and the way he smelled, and slowly unfurled in his lap.

Kyungsoo is definitely like that. "I can refill the bath tomorrow," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo gives him that indefinable look.

"We should mop up," Kyungsoo says, one hand gripping at his towel as his other hand scratches at his neck, with one finger. He picks up his wet clothes from the floor with distaste. "What a mess."

"I'll do it," Baekhyun says. "I didn't put you in the bath so you could strain your muscles all over again cleaning up."

There's rebellion in Kyungsoo's eyes, but Baekhyun squares his shoulders and the flame quickly dies. "Then I'll see you in the morning," says Kyungsoo. He walks out of the room, letting in gusts of cool air from the hall. Goosebumps rise on the backs of Baekhyun's arms.

"See you in the morning," echoes Baekhyun. He watches Kyungsoo walk down the hall before closing the door to keep the heat in, resting his back against the damp, soft wood. He surveys the water covering the floor and sighs, rubbing sheepishly at his hair.

⚘❁⚘

A few days later, in the morning, the Lexus is gone from the front of the guesthouse. Baekhyun bites his lip unsurely, but Kyungsoo's door has been left open. Peeking inside, it's neat, and the plans are all gone, but Kyungsoo's suitcase is still here, and his pajamas are folded on top of his bedding.

"He'd have said he was leaving, if he was leaving," Baekhyun mutters to himself. "Don't be ridiculous, Byun Baekhyun."

With Kyungsoo's absence, it's his first free morning in a while. He dithers around in his room and then in the kitchen, but eventually he gets dressed, wrapping himself up in his coat and putting on his Nexan cap to walk down to the village.

His ears get cold, but it's fine. After the spate of warm days, he'd almost forgotten winter was about to set in in earnest, but he's survived quite a few seaside winters and it's never exactly freezing.

Baekhyun enters the village, walking along the dock where the boats are still anchored. The water must be too choppy to go out. He's glad that the divers aren't going out today. They've been stubborn, in the past, and when the water is like this, there's a bigger chance someone will get swallowed up and never be spat back out.

"Baekhyunnie!"

Baekhyun grabs his hat and twists it sideways as he looks toward the voice. There's a figure running up the dock toward him, and he stops walking to wait. "Hey, Minseok-hyung."

Minseok is wearing a waterproof jacket in navy, with a gray collar that used to be white, and he's smiling, his eyes squinting in the wind as his hair, freshly cut, is the victim of his hand pushing it back. "Did you ever check on the roof?" he asks.

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "Looks like it'll make it through the winter, hyung, thanks."

"My sister worries about you," says Minseok, "all alone up there."

"She doesn't have to. I'm fine."

Minseok shrugs. "I know," he says. "You've always been pretty tough." He claps Baekhyun on the shoulder, and Baekhyun can feel his strength. Minseok's hand is warm. Baekhyun leans into the touch. He always has. Attention from Minseok always makes him feel… it's always been something he likes. "Met your guest this morning. Do Kyungsoo?"

"Did you?"

"That's some car he's got," Minseok says, laughing. Baekhyun pushes his hands into his coat pockets. "I didn't really believe Jongdae when he was telling me about it. You know how everything is exaggerated with you two."

"Why did you see him?" Baekhyun asks, and Minseok tilts his head curiously.

"You don't need to be possessive," Minseok says. "He just asked me if the closest post office was really all the way in the city. I told him if he needed to send letters, he could head two villages west, but that he'd have to drive out the two hours to Seogwipo-si if he needed to send a package with any kind of hurry. So I think he was headed out there."

"The post office?" The plans had been gone, Baekhyun thinks. Kyungsoo had said they were for an older project, and maybe he needed to send them back to Seoul.

"He's not the friendliest guy around, is he?" Minseok says, and Baekhyun licks his lips and then regrets it as they sting in the wind. They'll be as chapped as Kyungsoo's soon.

"It's not like that," Baekhyun says, and Minseok narrows his eyes. There's silence, for a moment, then Minseok's dad is calling for him from the water, where he's unroping their boat, pulling the ties over the bow. Minseok nods with something like understanding.

"Oh," Minseok says. "Well then, make sure you take him somewhere other than the Kims' samgyeopsal restaurant." He grins. "Looks like we're going to pick up the traps, after all."

"Be careful," Baekhyun says. "Water looks really rough."

"The divers aren't going out, and we won't go more than a kilometer from shore." Minseok laughs. "No one getting eaten up by the ocean today." Baekhyun swallows, and Minseok claps him on the shoulder. "Just picking up the traps, Baekhyunnie. Nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, I know," he says, smiling at Minseok. "I'm going to go find Taeyeon-noona and see if she can cut my hair sometime today."

"I saw her earlier," Minseok says, "helping dry seaweed. She's at home today." He turns around. "She cut mine yesterday."

"It looks good," Baekhyun says. "She's the only person I trust besides Soojung to do it."

"You trust Soojung with your heart," Minseok says, waving as he starts to walk away. "You trust Taeyeon because she's actually good at it." Baekhyun laughs, leaving Minseok to climb onto his family's boat. Baekhyun can't watch it go out, not on a day like today. He always feels queasy when people go out on the water on the bad days. But making a living as a fisherman requires it, and he knows that. It just makes him think about when he was a kid, is all.

At least it's not raining.

He finds Taeyeon out in front of the house, hair pulled back tightly from her face and wearing a chunky knit sweater instead of a coat. Her hands are pink, and her gray nail polish is chipped. She looks perfect.

She has a drying net stretched cattycorner between the stone walls that protect her family home from the wind, and it's half full of stretched sea lettuce, long greenish purple leaves laid out to dry.

She notices Baekhyun when he whistles at her in greeting, and smiles, and he smiles back, wiggling his eyebrows. "Hey, noona, will you do me a favor?"

"Depends," she says, and Baekhyun laughs. "It's not buying you cigarettes, right?"

"That was only the once," Baekhyun says. He and Jongdae had only smoked two from the pack, choking and wheezing before foisting the rest off to some first year in exchange for a few comics. "This is much less illegal."

"Need me to do something about your hair?" She puts her hands on her hips. "Just let me finish up with this batch of seaweed."

"Let me help," Baekhyun says, taking off his coat and pushing up his sleeves. They work side by side, arms rubbing against each other as they pull the seaweed out, making sure it's free of shells before adding it to the pile to be strung out in the net. Once the batch is washed and cleared of wild things, Baekhyun holds the hanging net out straight so that Taeyeon can spread the seaweed flat.

"Now we just have to hope it doesn't start to rain in the next forty-eight hours," she says, satisfied, putting her hands on her hips. She's so small, next to him, but Baekhyun knows she's tough. It's one of the things he admires about her.

Her hands are like Kyungsoo's, he thinks, tiny but capable, and he shakes the thought off as she elbows him. "Come on inside the house before we both get sick."

"Right," Baekhyun says, grabbing his coat from the ground and following Taeyeon up to the house. Once inside, she immediately leaves him in the front entryway to go and get her scissors, and Baekhyun greets her mother, who asks him what he's been up to since she saw him last. "Nothing much," he tells her, which is usually true, but then he scratches at his neck and grins. "Actually, we've got a city boy staying in our village right now, and I've been showing him around."

"Oh, I'd heard," she says, her hands steadily peeling winter potatoes as she speaks. She has a huge pile in a bowl in front of her, like she's been at it a long while. "That there was a winter guest."

"His name's Do Kyungsoo," says Baekhyun, and Taeyeon's mother looks up curiously.

"Do?" she asks, as Taeyeon returns, and Baekhyun nods.

"He's from Seoul," adds Baekhyun, as Taeyeon leans against the doorway, a bag in her hands. Taeyeon's mother frowns thoughtfully, but then shakes her head.

‘Well, I hope he's enjoying his stay," she says, and Baekhyun grins.

"I'm doing my best," he says, and her frown melts away.

‘You're always good with the lost ones," she says, and Baekhyun blinks at her.

"Really?" Baekhyun pulls at his sleeves.

Taeyeon clears her throat. "I haven't got all day, Baekhyunnie," she says, and Baekhyun laughs.

"Sorry, noona," he says, batting his eyelashes at her, and she chuckles, reaching up to fluff his hair. He beams at her, and she offers back a crooked smile. Baekhyun turns to Taeyeon's mother. "I asked noona to cut my hair," he explains, and she nods.

"Have a good day, Baekhyunnie," she says, and Baekhyun quickly bows and then follows Taeyeon to the bathroom.

She has him sit on the toilet, pulling his cap off and tsking. "When did you get so tall?" she mutters, and Baekhyun wrinkles his nose at her.

"I think we just had this conversation," he says, as she pulls a comb and scissors out of the small black bag she keeps for cutting hair.

"Aren't little brothers supposed to humor their noonas about things like this?" she asks, and Baekhyun sucks his lower lip into his mouth as she combs his hair outward from the center of his crown.

He supposes _little brother_ should hurt more than it does. His stomach is sloshing, and he presses his closed fist to it, pushing in until it stops. "Yeah," he says faintly. "I guess."

Taeyeon works quickly, her fingers nimbly angling the scissors to snip away at hair that falls into his face. Black clumps of his hair fall onto his lap and stick to his sweatshirt, and Taeyeon takes her index finger and uses it to lift his chin. She studies his face, or really, her work, and Baekhyun waits for the flutter in his chest, but it doesn't come.

"Looking sharp, Baekhyunnie," she says. "Let me just finish the back."

When she's done, Baekhyun stands up, towering over her again, and brushes the hair from his shoulders. He looks into the mirror and he sees the both of them, Taeyeon looking critically at his hair as he watches her. "Looks great, noona," he says. His throat is dry. "Thank you."

"Let's just clean up this mess and we're good to go," she replies, patting him on the shoulder. "I've got errands to run today."

"Thank you," Baekhyun says again, as he's leaving, and he calls a goodbye to Taeyeon's mother as he steps into his shoes, shrugging his coat on at the same time. He puts his cap on last, in deference to the favor Taeyeon had done him, and Taeyeon chuckles as she pushes on the brim of it, lightly.

"It's not a problem," she says. "After all, you let me practice on you when we were kids."

Baekhyun's done a lot of silly things in the name of his crush. "I've always trusted you, noona," he replies smoothly, with a wink, and she rolls her eyes and pushes him out the door. He stumbles, but looks back at her and grins. He waves goodbye as he sets out toward Jongdae's mom's restaurant.

He stops at a convenience store on his way, picking up a few things and talking briefly with Old Man Lee about the weather before he's back outside. The wind has gotten stronger, and the water, when Baekhyun squints out, is pressing rough against the few boats out on it, foaming white and frothing as it hits the rocks.

"Definitely going to rain," he mumbles to himself, looking up at the sky. The sun is up there, hiding behind clouds, and it's left the day a grim gray.

He walks into the restaurant a few moments later, bag swinging from his fingers as he looks around for Jongdae. His best friend is squatting down, scrubbing out a grill, and Baekhyun watches him for a moment.

"Hey there, stranger," he says, when Jongdae doesn't look up, and Jongdae drops his rag, turning to look at Baekhyun over his shoulder before standing and stretching.

"Hey," Jongdae says. "Where's your guest?"

"I don't know. He went out and took his car, but all his stuff is still around, so…" Baekhyun's neck feels bare, without all the hair, and he uses his free hand to cup it. "Minseok-hyung figures he went to the post office."

"I see," Jongdae says. "I thought he'd finally fled." His voice sounds odd, and Baekhyun doesn't know why.

"I must not be that unbearable," Baekhyun says, grinning. "You're still here, after all."

"Where else would I be?" Jongdae finally grins at him, and Baekhyun relaxes, stepping closer. "You cut your hair."

"Went to see Taeyeon-noona about it this morning," says Baekhyun.

"Did she fall in love with you?" Jongdae asks, and Baekhyun sighs morosely.

"She called me her little brother," he whines, and Jongdae laughs, a loud bark more suited to Baekhyun or Chanyeol than Jongdae. "Don't tell Chanyeol, or I'll strangle you."

"I'm texting him immediately," replies Jongdae. "This is the best."

"You're an awful best friend," says Baekhyun, scraping nails along his neck and coming away with short centimeter-long pieces of cut hair.

"You're the one who's been too busy with your houseguest to come visit me."

"I'm sorry. I actually came by to see if you could spare some time for a walk before we're caught in this storm."

"I'll think about it," says Jongdae, teasingly, and he squats down again, going back to scrubbing the grill as Baekhyun pretends to kick him, laughing.

"Is that Byun Baekhyun?" Jongdae's mom calls out from the kitchen, and then she comes out to see for herself, drying her hands with a dishcloth. "It's been a while since I've heard that laugh."

"Hi Mom," Baekhyun says, grinning broadly at her. "How are you today?"

"I'm good," she says. "Where have you been?"

"With Kyungsoo, mostly. We went picking tangerines, and horseback riding, too." Baekhyun turns his cap. "Can you believe he'd never hang-dried his laundry on a line?"

Jongdae laughs, finally finished scrubbing, and then turns to look at a recently vacated table as he stretches out his arms. "Well, you know, you've never driven a Lexus."

"Shut up," Baekhyun says, making a face at Jongdae like he used to when they'd been seated on opposite sides of the classroom in middle school. Jongdae makes an even uglier face back, and Jongdae's mother sighs. "Anyway, he looks less…" Baekhyun almost says less worried, but he's not sure he should. So he lets the sentence trail off, and Jongdae and his mom both seem to get it.

Jongdae's mom makes a thoughtful noise in the back of her throat. "There's something about him," she says, "that I can't quite put my finger on."

"Is that what you were thinking about the other night?" asks Baekhyun. "You seemed distracted."

"He caught me off-guard," she says. "I usually don't forget faces, and his rings a bell, but I know I've never met him before."

"Weird." Baekhyun puts his hands in his pockets and taps his toes. It's quiet for a beat too long, and he quickly says: "Do you mind if I steal Jongdae for a while?"

"No," she says, "but if you go out to the inlet, be careful. I think we're about to get snow."

"Is it cold enough for snow?" Baekhyun asks, and she nods.

"Definitely," she says. "The cold front has come in early this year. We're at least going to get heavy fog and rain."

"We'll come home before that," Baekhyun vows, and she laughs.

"I know you will," she says. "You hate that kind of weather." She rubs her hands on her apron, giving him a very Jongdae smile. "I'd better get back to work. Jongdeok will be here soon to help out, so Jongdae, don't worry about it."

She leaves Jongdae and Baekhyun alone in the restaurant. With that cleared out table, there are no more customers, and Baekhyun follows Jongdae over to the vacated table as he moves to clean it up.

"You're very quiet today," says Baekhyun, when the silence is hanging heavy between them again. "Is something wrong?"

Jongdae yawns. "Sorry, I was just up so late last night."

"Really?" Baekhyun frowns. "Doing what?"

Jongdae uses his stick to poke at the moss. "Talking on the phone," he says. "With Soojung."

"She never calls me," Baekhyun says, lightly. "Ever."

"You don't get service," Jongdae says, cleaning up bowls. They clank loudly together. "How is she supposed to?"

"Ugh," Baekhyun says, "maybe you guys are right. Maybe I should work on getting reliable phone service up there."

"No one wants to talk to you, anyway. Because you're a deadbeat friend."

"I am not." Baekhyun curls his fingers tighter around the plastic bag from the convenience store, filled with Hwanta and crackers. "I've just been busy."

"With ~Kyungsoo~," Jongdae says, picking up the laden tray and taking it back toward the kitchen. "You'd think he was your best friend." Jongdae's lips are fighting off a customary cat-grin, and Baekhyun's missed him, even if it hasn't been that long since he saw him last. Maybe that's what happens, when you grow up so much inside someone else's space that the space becomes shared.

"Don't be ridiculous," Baekhyun says, as Jongdae loudly puts the dishes in the sink, his mother laughing. "Everyone knows that's Chanyeol."

"Why I oughtta—" Jongdae comes running out of the kitchen and Baekhyun laughs, running too, out the front door and into the street. A couple of teenagers ride by on their bicycles as Jongdae playfully chases him down the road, and Baekhyun feels like he's their age again, with his best friend, ditching math lecture to play tag and hoping no one sees fit to tell his grandmother.

Jongdae chases him all the way down to the edge of town, finally catching up and wrapping his arms around Baekhyun's waist to hold onto him, laughing and panting as he rests his head on Baekhyun's shoulder. Fleetingly, Baekhyun compares the feeling of Jongdae's hands on his stomach to Kyungsoo's, and there's none of the same buzz under his skin. Probably, Baekhyun thinks, because he's known Jongdae for years and Kyungsoo for only weeks.

"We haven't done that in years," says Jongdae. "I'd almost forgotten how surprisingly fast you are."

"Or you're slow," counters Baekhyun, breathing in the cold air too quickly, his lungs stinging. "Getting old, Kim Jongdae?"

"You're older than me," Jongdae says, releasing Baekhyun's waist and grabbing the plastic bag from his hand. "Hwanta?"

"Felt like being a kid again," says Baekhyun, and Jongdae grabs his arm, pulling lightly.

"Inlet?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, reclaiming the bag after he's caught his breath.

They pick their way down the rocks, managing not to fall despite the wind. The water is higher than usual, so they don't go all the way down, sitting on the larger rocks that usually serve as stairs down to the water's edge.

"I got an e-mail from Yixing yesterday," Baekhyun says, pulling the Hwanta out of the bag. He twists the cap, and the soda burbles out and all over his hands, pineapple smell spilling to the rocks. "Motherfucker!"

"We were running," Jongdae says, clutching at his stomach with laughter as Baekhyun frantically tries to screw the cap back on to stem the flow. "Oh man, you're so…"

"I forgot it wasn't booze." Baekhyun wipes his hands on his jeans. "Ugh."

"So what's Yixing up to?" Jongdae asks, reaching for the now sticky plastic bag and pulling out the crackers. He steps on the plastic bag to keep it from blowing away as he opens the crinkly cellophane cracker bag.

"Playing with his band," Baekhyun says. "He says they're getting more club gigs, lately. That he spends his evenings breathing in cigarette smoke and playing for drunks." He opens the Hwanta again. It doesn't froth over, this time. He takes a long sip before handing the bottle to Jongdae. "He seems happy."

"Happy's good," Jongdae says. "I miss him sometimes."

"I miss him all the time," Baekhyun admits, as Jongdae holds the bag of crackers out to him. Instead of taking the bag, Baekhyun reaches in and takes a handful. "But you know, whatever."

"Clubs," Jongdae says. "I wonder what clubs are like in Beijing."

Baekhyun wonders what clubs are like at all. He can see Minseok's family boat on the water, if he squints hard enough, but when he closes his eyes, he can see neon lights and imagine a thrumming bass beat. He can imagine dancing in a crowd of people he doesn't know. He can imagine seeing Yixing on stage, with Lu Han, the friend he's always mentioning that Baekhyun's only seen two pictures of.

"Probably noisy," Baekhyun says.

"You'd fit right in," Jongdae jokes. "You should go join him."

"And leave you?" Baekhyun says, taking the soda back to wash down the dryness in his mouth. "I could never."

Jongdae looks at him, hand raised half the distance to his mouth with crackers. "You really never gonna leave Jeolbyeog-ri?" he asks quietly, and Baekhyun shrugs.

"How can I?" He thinks about the guesthouse, and about the land behind it. He thinks about the camphor trees, and this inlet, and the smell of salt in the air. He thinks about his grandmother, with her wise old eyes, asking him to take care of the guesthouse for her, and to visit the goddess's halmang-dang when he gets the chance.

"Yeah," Jongdae says, looking down at his feet.

Baekhyun had barely survived his military service. He'd come home, to his grandmother's failing health and a village unchanged, and he'd been relieved. It's silly, he thinks, to long for a city.

Baekhyun takes a swig of soda. "Besides, not like I'd survive in the real world. What am I good at, anyway?"

"Talking shit," Jongdae replies immediately, and the tense moment is broken, both of them laughing.

They end up talking about Chanyeol's new ponies, and about the drama they've both been half-assedly keeping up with on KBS, and Baekhyun slowly lets himself be lulled into familiar conversational beats and the sound of the wind whistling across the waves.

The clouds start to turn a darker color, and Jongdae looks up, considering. "We should probably head back in."

"Probably," Baekhyun says, slow to start moving. "Unless we want to get drenched."

They scramble back up the rocks. Baekhyun remembers when he was barely thirteen, and he'd twisted his ankle trying to climb back up in the rain. Jongdae had run off ahead of him, and Baekhyun had cried until he'd returned with Jongdeok and Sooyeon, and the two of them had helped carry him back up, and then all the way to the guesthouse. Baekbeom and his grandmother had fussed over him, then, his grandmother rubbing herb ointment into his swollen ankle as Baekbeom berated him about going dangerous places in the rain, which had always been his brother's way of saying he's worried.

There's no one back at the guesthouse now, so Baekhyun's careful with each step as the fog comes in heavier.

Rain starts to fall shortly after they get to flat ground. The route they take to the village rapidly becomes muddy, and soon the rain becomes hail.

"Hail is definitely worse than snow," Jongdae says, trash swinging from his left hand as he blocks his eyes with the right.

"This hat isn't meant for this," Baekhyun says, laughing to keep from shivering.

"The only thing that hat is meant for is a bonfire," Jongdae replies, bumping into Baekhyun purposefully. "You'll see next season, when the Tigers trounce your team."

"You're so full of it," Baekhyun says. "Your team isn't gonna win a single damn game."

They get to Jongdae's house, just next to the restaurant, and Jongdae tries to get Baekhyun to come inside. "Just until the hail lets up," he says, and Baekhyun shakes his head.

"I'll end up spending the night," says Baekhyun. "Plus, I'm pretty sure I left the kitchen windows open to get rid of the smell from the fish I was drying." He'd spent the past couple of days doing that, as Kyungsoo wandered in and out of his room, refilling his coffee mug with alarming rapidity. He'd never complained about the smell, but Baekhyun could tell he hadn't liked it very much. _"I'm almost done,"_ Baekhyun had said, and Kyungsoo had given him a small smile. _"It's not that bad,"_ he'd replied. _"Although my friend from high school hated any strong smells. He might have cried."_ Baekhyun had laughed, and opened the windows, letting in the cool air.

Jongdae winces. "Yeah, you'd better get home."

He doesn't wait for Jongdae to get into the house before he starts to jog back home. His cap threatens to blow off his head, so he takes it off and holds onto it tightly. He takes the road back home instead of the path. He can't run on the mud, and it'll be faster to just take the paved way. As he comes up to the guesthouse, he sees the Lexus is back in the driveway, and he hadn't realized he was still anxious about that until something tight in his chest loosens.

He pushes into the guesthouse and sighs with relief. "What a mess," he says, and Kyungsoo comes out into the hallway. He's wearing an untucked black dress shirt with his jeans, and his hair has been styled away from his face. Baekhyun stares at him for a moment, taking in the pallor of his neck against the collar of the shirt, before he smiles. "You're back."

Kyungsoo frowns at him, before disappearing back into his room. Baekhyun stares, dumbfounded, at the spot where Kyungsoo just was, before he shrugs, pushing off his soggy shoes and finger-combing bits of ice from his hair.

He unzips his coat and looks down at the soaked denim of his jeans. "At least the pineapple soda's probably washed out," he mumbles to himself.

Sudden warmth has him freezing in place, and it takes him a minute to realize it's one of the big blue towels draped over his head as Kyungsoo towels his hair dry with a brusque motion. Baekhyun stares at Kyungsoo's bare feet as he feels Kyungsoo's fingers through the terrycloth, and when Kyungsoo pulls away, he leaves the towel behind. Baekhyun looks up, and Kyungsoo is staring at him, big eyes and full lips.

"Bad weather for a walk." He looks away. "You should go change into dry clothes."

"It wasn't raining when I left," Baekhyun says, trying to whine louder than his suddenly frantic heartbeat. "It's actually hailing, now. I hope your car is okay."

"It'll be fine," Kyungsoo says. "I'm glad I got back here before the storm started. I closed the windows."

"I was worried about that, thanks. We don't usually have this much rough weather," Baekhyun says, taking a corner of the towel and wiping his face. It smells faintly of seom ogalpi.

After he's changed, he comes into the kitchen to find Kyungsoo curled over a book, written in English. There's a cup of hot chocolate waiting at the seat across from him, and Baekhyun sits down in front of it.

"Is this for me?" Kyungsoo looks up from the book to give Baekhyun a level stare before looking down again. "Ahaha, I guess it is." He cups it in both hands, letting warmth sink into his fingers. "I went with Jongdae down to the inlet today," he says. "You've never been there, but it's where we always go to talk. The water's really choppy today, so we didn't go all the way down." Kyungsoo turns a page in his book. "Minseok-hyung said you asked him about post offices, so I guess that's where you went? I thought maybe you'd left, when I got up this morning."

"I left the bedroom door open," Kyungsoo says, "so that you'd see my suitcase was still there." His thumb taps against the edge of the book, and Baekhyun, finally warm in his fresh sweatshirt and pants, wriggles in his chair.

"I guess you had to mail those plans? At least, I noticed they were gone, and if you'd only had to send a letter, you could have just gone to the next village over—"

"The plans were needed by the Seoul office," Kyungsoo says. "Stop chattering and drink the chocolate before it gets cold."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "Thanks for making it." He takes a sip, and notices the chocolate is mixed thoroughly, the way he'd mixed Kyungsoo's cup, before. He smiles down at it. Kyungsoo's ankle brushes his under the table, and Baekhyun looks over at Kyungsoo. "You're just all cute and sweet and domestic when you want to be, aren't you?"

He wonders if he's pushed too far, but Kyungsoo just glares at him, closing his book. He makes sure it's square with the edge of the table before he lets it go. "You're not going to let me read, are you?"

"Nope," Baekhyun says cheerfully. He doesn't know why he's got this rush of happiness, but it's irrepressible, climbing up out of him in the form of more and more words. "Pay attention to me, I'm more interesting."

"You cut your hair," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun laughs.

"Taeyeon-noona did," Baekhyun says. "I seduced her."

"Sure you did," Kyungsoo replies. He's on the verge of smiling. His eyebrows tilt down at the outer corners, relaxed. "I totally believe you."

"You should," Baekhyun says, draping himself across the table and smiling up at Kyungsoo, chin digging into the wood. The mug of chocolate is warm against his forearm. "I'm very charming." The tips of Kyungsoo's ears turn a bright red. It's so cute, and Baekhyun laughs. "You think I'm charming, don't you?"

"No," Kyungsoo says shortly. "I think you're annoying." He visibly hesitates, before he brushes Baekhyun's hair across his forehead, the strands feathering under his fingers. Baekhyun's skin tingles at the touch, and he licks the roof of his mouth, tasting chocolate. "It looks nice."

"What?"

"Your hair," Kyungsoo says. "I'm going to go read in my room."

"Okay," Baekhyun says, faintly, as Kyungsoo stands up from the table. Baekhyun watches him go, an odd heaviness in his limbs, before he gets up and takes the mopping bucket outside to collect rainwater that he can use to water his plants. The soil in the chasteberry pots looks a little dry.

It strikes Baekhyun, a few minutes later, as he's rinsing out his chocolate cup and thinking about dinner, that the bubble of happiness in his stomach might be because he'd expected to come home to nothing but quiet, but instead he'd found Kyungsoo and a hot beverage and two small hands to towel-dry his hair.

It creates a lump in his throat that's difficult to swallow around. He stands by the kitchen window for a long time, after that, holding the haenyeo statue with both hands and watching the hail beat down the grass outside.

⚘❁⚘

Winter usually passes slowly, in e-mails to Yixing and chilly hikes with Jongdae and Chanyeol up into the hills. Baekhyun picks tangerines until the season ends and then plays videogames the rest of the time, until he fears carpal tunnel in his thumbs and up his wrists. The winter is always long, and Baekhyun waits for the calmer seas and warmer winds of spring with a longing he never learned to fear until he was old enough to know it was tinged with melancholy.

Winters on the island, at least for the people who still live in small villages like Baekhyun does, serve mostly as downtime, the lull of the two quiet months of December and January preparing them all for the new year.

This winter is not slow. This winter, every day that Baekhyun opens his eyes, there's something new to learn about Kyungsoo: some new facial expression Baekhyun can't understand, or some new quiet detail that Kyungsoo lets slip in the late hours of the day, as the sun drops behind the mountain. Kyungsoo is the loudest quiet person Baekhyun has ever met, every action calling attention and every twist of his mouth worth fifty of Baekhyun's words in terms of meaning.

This winter, the cold creeps into the house at night and clings to Baekhyun's feet and down the back of his neck, but during the day, there's plenty to do. He and Kyungsoo spend hours picking the last of the gamgyul. Kyungsoo is almost as fast as Baekhyun is, now, at stripping the trees of all their fruit. He still can't peel them, though, with his short fingernails. Baekhyun has to help him, using his thumbnail to break the skin, and then he insists on feeding Kyungsoo pieces of the juicy fruit one by one, pretending his insides don't shiver when Kyungsoo bites at his fingers if they linger too long in front of his lips.

This winter, Baekhyun falls into a new routine, dragging Kyungsoo with him to buy eggs and fish from the market and taking him up into the hills and down different paths, tugging him along until Kyungsoo's face is red from neck to ear-tips with exertion and he pants visible breaths into the space between them, cursing Baekhyun in a surly tone until they reach another spectacular island view.

"How do you live in paradise?" Kyungsoo asks, looking down at the free-roaming deer as they nibble at the camellia blossoms that persistently bloom on the hillsides, and Baekhyun laughs.

"One day at a time," he says, "until it isn't paradise anymore." He points at a long-limbed fawn chewing on yellow winter weeds. "That one looks like Chanyeollie, don't you think?"

"Has that happened for you?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun contemplates tall buildings and traffic-filled mornings and neon noraebang signs, wondering how they'd compare to his morning chocolate and clear view of the tumultuous wintry ocean. "Has Jeju lost paradise status?"

"Not yet," Baekhyun says. The wind blows blustery here, and the sparsely growing trees offer little protection. "I'm worried about it happening, though."

"I don't think it will," Kyungsoo says, as Baekhyun tries to think of a way to change the subject. He finds himself licking his lips and staring at Kyungsoo instead, because Kyungsoo rarely continues conversations, and even more rarely starts them.

"Yeah?"

Kyungsoo is not looking back at Baekhyun. He's watching the fawn that Baekhyun had pointed out to him, his eyes soft. Kyungsoo is, Baekhyun's realized, all about pretending to be emotionless, but it's probably just because he wants to be taken seriously despite his baby face. Right now, his mouth is in a natural pout, and in profile, Baekhyun can't help but notice the gentle line of his nose and the strong line of his jaw.

"I don't think you can get tired of something like this," says Kyungsoo. "There's so much."

"There's something scary about knowing this is the rest of my life," Baekhyun says. He reaches over to Kyungsoo, so he can pull the knit cap Kyungsoo is wearing down over his earlobes, and Kyungsoo frowns at him, but allows him to linger. "This island, this guesthouse. I think it scared my brother, too." Baekhyun likes to reassure himself that that's why Baekbeom left. That it hadn't had anything to do with Baekhyun at all. Sometimes, it works.

"There are worse things than living the rest of your life in paradise."

"There are," Baekhyun says, biting his lip. "Sometimes the guesthouse, and this land, feels like a trap, though, and Baekbeom slipped through the bars right before the space between them shrunk too much for me to follow."

"I've never felt trapped before," says Kyungsoo, squatting down. Baekhyun watches as he digs his fingers into the ground, coming up with a handful of soil that's never been able to sustain rice. "It's always been easy to leave, every single place I've ever ended up."

"Even if I could leave," Baekhyun says, "I don't know what I'd do or where I'd go." He laughs. "It doesn't matter. I have to take care of this place, anyway. No use dwelling on what-ifs."

"You took the teacher exams though," says Kyungsoo. "Didn't you?" He stands up, letting the dirt fall between his fingers back to the ground.

"Everyone's allowed to reach for the stars once in their life, right?" Baekhyun laughs, and it doesn't sting too much, in his chest. "Those were my stars."

"I've never had stars, either. Nothing so bright as that."

"They're really far away. You seem too practical for that."

"Maybe," Kyungsoo says, holding his small dirty hand in front of his face before walking closer to Baekhyun. Baekhyun watches him, wind licking at his cheeks and nose, and waits for whatever Kyungsoo is going to do. Kyungsoo smirks up at him and then wipes his hand on the front of Baekhyun's jeans, just above the knee. Baekhyun's so shocked he lets him. "It's only practical to keep my clothes clean, right?"

"Play nice," Baekhyun says, finally deciding on laughing as Kyungsoo gives him a tiny pleased grin that slowly becomes a big heart-shaped smile. "You're so mean to me." Baekhyun sticks out his lower lip for effect. "So, so mean."

"You can ask my friends," says Kyungsoo, "and they'd tell you this is how I show I care."

"You care about me?" Baekhyun slings an arm around Kyungsoo's shoulders, marveling at the way he fits perfectly under Baekhyun's arm with his narrow shoulders, the hat tickling Baekhyun's nose. "That's so sweet, my darling Kyungsoo." He makes his voice extra cloying, the way he's learned makes Kyungsoo more likely to smack his arm, small hand spread out flat when he delivers the blow.

"You're a menace," Kyungsoo says, as though he hadn't just wiped his hand on Baekhyun's jeans. His voice is stern, but his expression is far from it.

"You love it," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo pulls free of Baekhyun's hold, glaring up at him through hair that's grown shaggy. "You think I'm the funn-est, coolest person in Jejudo and it's not even because you haven't met that many others." Baekhyun plans to keep talking, but Kyungsoo's laughter makes him stop, just so he can study the way his whole face scrunches up with amusement. His laughter is visible too, puffs of hot white in the chilly air.

"It's not unbearable," Kyungsoo says, when he stops laughing. He's facing Baekhyun, walking slowly backwards, and Baekhyun takes two steps forward, to decrease this distance between them, drawn closer by the spark in Kyungsoo's eyes. "Most of the time."

Kyungsoo takes another step backward, and Baekhyun grabs a fistful of his coat, keeping him from taking another. "Careful walking like that," he says, "you're not wearing a helmet. It's _reckless_."

Kyungsoo gapes at him, surprised, before he pushes roughly at Baekhyun's chest. "Fuck you," he says, and Baekhyun laughs, loud enough to startle the deer they'd been watching.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help," Baekhyun teases, as they begin walking back to the guesthouse, and if Kyungsoo trips him, Baekhyun manages to catch himself before he falls. "Such a violent kitten."

"What did you just call me?" Kyungsoo asks, balling his hand into a fist, and Baekhyun shriek-laughs as he jogs a little ahead, to protect himself from Kyungsoo's wrath.

At dinner at Jongdae's family restaurant that night, they drink too much soju and Kyungsoo's hand finds its way into Baekhyun's hair as Baekhyun drowsily leans in. Through half-lidded eyes, he watches Jongdae and Soojung, who is home for the weekend visiting, whisper to each other, laughing as Baekhyun tries to process the gentle scrape of Kyungsoo's fingertips against his scalp, and through the haze, Baekhyun wonders how, in just under a month, he got here, his head on Kyungsoo's shoulder as he watches his two best friends across the table, an odd distance between them.

"You're nicer to me when I'm drunk," Baekhyun slurs, and Kyungsoo's hand fists in his hair and pulls in reprimand.

"Am I?" Kyungsoo is smiling, and Baekhyun's drunk enough not to worry about hedgehogs or personal space, nuzzling closer. Kyungsoo's breath hitches, and Baekhyun moves back a little so he can narrow his eyes at Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo's eyes cross as he looks back, and Baekhyun suddenly isn't thinking about Jongdae and Soojung's inaudible secrets. Instead he's thinking about the deep bow of Kyungsoo's upper lip.

"I really like your mouth," Baekhyun says, and pokes at Kyungsoo's lower lip with his middle finger. He misses, though, and pokes Kyungsoo's chin instead. Kyungsoo grabs his hand and pulls it down forcefully.

"Time for bed," Kyungsoo says. Kyungsoo's hand, holding onto Baekhyun's, is so small, and Baekhyun stretches his hand out to compare sizes, pressing his palm to Kyungsoo's. Kyungsoo lets him, aligning their fingers. Kyungsoo has strong, capable hands, but the tips of Kyungsoo's fingers only reach three quarters of the way up Baekhyun's longer digits. (Baekhyun's always been told his hands are just like his mother's.) Baekhyun curls his fingers down at the top knuckle. Kyungsoo's nails aren't long enough to dig into his skin. "Is this the clinging abalone stage I was warned about?"

"You have such small hands," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo snorts.

"Big enough to wrap around your neck," he replies. Kyungsoo still hasn't taken his hand away, and Baekhyun wonders if his own hand would just swallow Kyungsoo's up if he held it: if he slipped his fingers in between Kyungsoo's short ones, pads of each digit pressing against the smooth skin on the back of Kyungsoo's hands.

"What are you two _doing_?" Jongdae asks, and Baekhyun takes a moment to process that Jongdae is talking to him and Kyungsoo. It doesn't take Kyungsoo nearly as long, and he pulls away before Baekhyun's caught up, shoving Baekhyun none too gently so that he can scoot away, putting space between them. Baekhyun slumps to the floor and looks up at Kyungsoo blearily when he realizes what's happened.

"All your spines are out," Baekhyun says, finally, and Jongdae laughs. Kyungsoo stares down at him, unreadable and stiff. "Not a kitten at all," he tries to add, but his tongue won't cooperate.

"Baekhyun has had too much to drink," Kyungsoo says. "Who knows what he's doing."

"Baekhyun's a one shot wonder," Soojung says, and Baekhyun tries to glare at her but he can't figure out which her is the real one, since all of them are pretty and all of them are smirking down at him judgmentally. "Every shot after that first one is a nail in the coffin."

"Are you going to be all right taking him home?" Jongdae asks. "I can help, if you need me to."

Baekhyun tries to muster up the strength to protest that he can take _himself_ home, but he's not entirely sure it's true: not when he's seeing each of his friends in triplicate.

"I'm stronger than I look," Kyungsoo replies, and Baekhyun laughs, pushing himself up as Kyungsoo continues. "Certainly strong enough to deal with Baekhyun."

"It's not whether you can carry him or not that I'm worried about," Jongdae says. "I warned you, before, that he's a leech." He chuckles. "He's going to crawl all over you." Baekhyun forces his gaze to focus on Jongdae, who has the weirdest smile on his face as he looks at Kyungsoo. "Not sure you mind, though."

"I'll just shove him into his room and lock the door," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun believes him.

Then he's being hauled to his feet. It takes him five tries to put on his jacket, even with Soojung grabbing his arm and shoving it into the first sleeve and repeating with his other arm. Somehow, it keeps falling off, until finally Kyungsoo grabs Baekhyun by the front of his sweater and says "stop fidgeting" in a low commanding voice, and Baekhyun holds still long enough for Jongdae to get his coat on.

"See you over the weekend, you lush," Jongdae says, and Baekhyun pulls a face as Kyungsoo presses a hand to the small of Baekhyun's back to guide him out the door. He thinks he might have seen Soojung start to stack the dishes, Jongdae with a hand on her shoulder, but he might be wrong about that. He can be wrong about all sorts of things, when he's drunk.

Baekhyun's head gets less and less fuzzy as they walk back to the guesthouse. The evening is clear, the moon bright, and Baekhyun unwraps himself from around Kyungsoo to walk ahead, tripping over his untied shoelaces and using the rock wall to steady himself as the world swims around him.

He runs a hand through his hair and sighs, exhaling rice liquor and pepper sauce, and puts his hands on his hips after a brief consideration and dismissal of the idea to tie his shoes. He closes his eyes momentarily, to get his bearings, and then opens them again when everything settles.

He looks back at Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo is staring at him, smile playing about his mouth and hands in his pockets. He looks, with his unkempt hair and Baekhyun's coat, like someone who's walked down this road through the village for years, and Baekhyun wishes he had: that he'd had years to learn the slope of Kyungsoo's nose and the way his shoulders shake when he laughs and the way he ties his shoes with two loops like a kindergartener and makes lopsided bows that probably drive him up the wall.

"You could belong here," Baekhyun says, right as he thinks it, and then hiccups, the pockets of carbonation from the Chilsung cider they'd had to drink before the soju finally rising in his belly, trying to escape his throat. "In Jeolbyeog-ri," he elaborates, not sure if Kyungsoo's expression is confused or amused. Maybe it's both. Maybe it's neither. Maybe Baekhyun is too drunk to figure out what Do Kyungsoo is thinking, especially since it's difficult enough when Baekhyun is sober.

"Really?" Kyungsoo says. He walks forward, toward Baekhyun, coming back into the range of Baekhyun's hands. One of Kyungsoo's odd invitations? "I'm not so sure about that." His smile is wry. Baekhyun can read that one.

"You could," Baekhyun says. He reaches out to cup Kyungsoo's neck, and maybe he imagines Kyungsoo's leaning into the touch. "Really really."

"I think part of the reason I came out here is because I was looking for that feeling," says Kyungsoo. "I thought it might be hiding out here."

"Did you find it?" Baekhyun asks, rubbing his thumb up and down, right along Kyungsoo's spine. He wonders why Kyungsoo had thought it would be in Jeolbyeog-ri, of all places. It's possible that he'd meant Jeju in general, but Baekhyun, oddly, doesn't think that's it at all. "Maybe it's waiting to spring a surprise attack on you."

Kyungsoo doesn't answer, just starts to walk again, and Baekhyun follows, falling into a story about the people who used to live in caves during the occupation. He's pretty sure he's skipping words, and stumbling over others, but Kyungsoo's spines have retracted again by the time Baekhyun stumbles through the guesthouse door, tripping again over the damn untied shoelace, and he'll take the interested gleam in Kyungsoo's eyes as a victory.

Baekhyun writes an e-mail to Yixing the next morning that's even longer than the last one, about horseback riding and about the weather. It seems like Baekhyun shouldn't have that much to talk about, but Baekhyun is Baekhyun, so he finds hundreds of things, all written out in typo-ridden Korean that he knows Yixing will have to work harder to understand.

 _"I miss you,"_ he types at the end of the message. _"It's not the same without you."_ Then he erases it, because that's sappy and weird and Yixing knows anyway.

It remains true that it's not the same without his friend. Usually, Baekhyun can hear the echoes of Yixing's giggle in the hallways, or in the morning before he's woken all the way up.

But this winter, the first one he's spent with a guest filling in the empty spaces Baekhyun's family had left behind, Baekhyun's a lot less lonely.

"You're up so early," Kyungsoo says, when Baekhyun walks into the kitchen. He already has coffee. Baekhyun thinks Kyungsoo would frown less in the morning if he drank more hot chocolate. "Do you always get up this early after getting that drunk?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, stretching. "Against my will. Habit. I don't know." He scratches his tummy. Kyungsoo looks exhausted, more than Baekhyun who can't quite seem to stop yawning. The whites of his eyes are slightly red. "Did you even sleep?"

"I forgot," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun notices he has his phone with him, and that it's open on an internet browser. Kyungsoo has gotten the wifi to work after all.

"To sleep?" Baekhyun asks. That's something Baekbeom used to say, when he'd been studying for his university entrance exams. "How?"

"I forgot that even if I was away, or out here, time is still passing in Seoul."

"It's passing here, too." Baekhyun pulls down at his shirt to protect the skin of his midriff from the chill of the kitchen that will fade when he has the stove up and running. "Just…"

"It's almost Christmas." Kyungsoo scratches at his scalp, with his index finger, his other hand gripping his phone way too hard, pressure turning the skin white at his fingertips. He looks at Baekhyun, with his red-veined eye-whites and his thick eyebrows gathered.

"You celebrate that?" Baekhyun asks. "Do you have a girlfriend, or something?" He grabs a piece of Kyungsoo's hair and rolls it between his fingers. "You never mentioned one." His nails brush Kyungsoo's cheek. "Do you have a pretty girl waiting for you back in Seoul?"

Kyungsoo wraps his hand around Baekhyun's wrist and pulls down. "I don't," he says. "I'm…" He stops, and blinks at Baekhyun, and Baekhyun realizes Kyungsoo is still holding onto his wrist, thumb pressed to Baekhyun's pulse. It sends warmth up through his arm.

Baekhyun looks down, and Kyungsoo must follow his gaze, because he suddenly lets go.

Without another word, he leaves the kitchen. He's left his mug on the end of the counter, unwashed. It's weird, for Kyungsoo, who seems to wash every dish twice, and three times if Baekhyun's already washed it.

Baekhyun is all of a sudden wide awake, all his sleepiness gone with the phantom of Kyungsoo's hold on his wrist and the look in his eyes.

"What's so special about Christmas?" Baekhyun mumbles, putting the mug in the sink and washing it in the tub of dishwater. He sets it on the side to dry and walks into the hallway. Kyungsoo's door is closed, and inside, he's not singing or shuffling papers, or typing as slow as a snail on his computer, which is way more modern than Baekhyun's old, worn-out netbook. There's no noise at all, coming from that room.

Baekhyun considers again the shadows under Kyungsoo's eyes, and hopes he's getting some sleep.

⚘❁⚘

"Coldest winter in southern Jejudo in years," Chanyeol says, on the 17th of December. "Maybe your houseguest brought the winter with him."

"Maybe," says Baekhyun, stirring the vegetables in the pan. It reminds him, for some reason, of the morning after Kyungsoo arrived. Chanyeol is nursing another wound, this time holding ice to his shin where a foal had kicked out at him. All Baekhyun had said was: _"Good thing it wasn't Makki."_ "Still think it's global _warming_?"

"I told you," Chanyeol says, dropping his ice on the kitchen table and pushing at Baekhyun's shoulder with his now free hand, "that's not how it works." He looks all geared up for an explanation but then he sighs. "Never mind. In one ear and out the other."

"Sorry I'm not smart enough for your boring lectures," Baekhyun snaps, then feels guilty about it. Chanyeol doesn't mean any harm. He smiles at him, in some kind of makeshift apology, and Chanyeol smiles back.

"You're plenty smart," Chanyeol says, hugging Baekhyun from behind. His ice pack thumbs Baekhyun in the chest, chilling him through his sweater. "Your attention span leaves a little bit to be desired."

"Haha," Baekhyun says, letting Chanyeol hold him for a little longer before squirming free. "Anyway, I doubt Kyungsoo has anything to do with the winter at all."

"I know that. I'm not the superstitious one here."

"I'm not superstitious. It's not about… It's not about believing or not believing." Baekhyun pouts. "Don't you have someone else to go pick on?"

"No," Chanyeol says, "just my favorite Baekhyunnie." He takes a piece of radish from the table and eats it. "Where's Kyungsoo?"

"He's working on something," Baekhyun says, adding more soy sauce to the pan. "I don't know what. But he hasn't slept in like two days."

"Really?" Chanyeol sits on the edge of the table, and it's totally unfair that his feet still touch the floor. "What's he working on?"

"I don't know," Baekhyun says. "Plans for his work, maybe?"

"Plans?" asks Chanyeol, and Baekhyun nods.

"He does some kind of architecture thing, for work." The vegetables are sizzling, now. Baekhyun pushes the mushrooms and squash around, wondering if Kyungsoo will eat breakfast with them today.

Chanyeol has the ice back on his shin again. He pouts, flexing his toes. Baekhyun hopes it's not too bad—if Chanyeol's kept down from horseback, he'll be underfoot like an overeager nerdy puppy, and Baekhyun won't get the chance to try and figure out what's eating Kyungsoo.

"That's cool," Chanyeol says. "So maybe he has something due?"

"I'm not sure," Baekhyun says. "You'd have to ask him." It probably wouldn't go well. Kyungsoo has been so prickly, the last few days, like he's counting down to something. It could be a deadline, but he isn't working feverishly. It's more like he wants to be thinking about anything else but he can't stop looking over his notes, can't stop dragging those short, chewed down nails down the unlined paper where he's scribbled things in his upward tilting handwriting, the text getting high on the page as it goes from left to right.

Baekhyun had pulled out his old Gameboy Color and taught him how to play Tetris, but Kyungsoo's slow deliberate need to clear all the rows one by one means he misses a lot of chances for high scores and also that when the board starts piling up, the lines around his mouth get deeper. _"Have you always worried so much, about getting everything perfect?"_ Baekhyun had said, and Kyungsoo had turned off the Gameboy, handing it back to Baekhyun and picking up his English book. They sat in the main room for an hour after that, and Kyungsoo hadn't once turned the page.

"Okay, sure, maybe I will ask him," Chanyeol says, bringing Baekhyun back to the present. "So are we still good for this weekend, or what?"

"This weekend?" Baekhyun turns off the stove, and takes the pan up, putting the fried vegetables on a plate. They're somewhat overcooked, he thinks, poking them with his cooking chopsticks and sighing. "What's this weekend?"

"Movie night?" Chanyeol laughs, and his icepack falls to the ground with a loud smack. "Jongdae said you agreed to it last time you guys had dinner?"

"Oh," Baekhyun says. He might remember that, through the fog of Kyungsoo's palm pressed to his own and Soojung… Soojung had said something, about his alcohol tolerance, maybe. "Yeah, right, right. Not sure if Kyungsoo will join us, but…"

Kyungsoo's room has turned into a cave again, but Baekhyun will do his best to draw him out.

"He probably will," Chanyeol says. "You seem to be able to make him relax." Chanyeol winces as he slides off the table and squats down to pick up his ice pack. Baekhyun absently rubs his stomach. He's hungry, but he'd be hungrier if Kyungsoo would join them for breakfast and drink his coffee as he stares judgmentally at Baekhyun's shitty table manners.

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, turning back to the vegetables and setting some of them aside for Kyungsoo, serving up the rest for himself and Chanyeol. "I guess."

"Is everything okay? You know, with stuff up here. Haven't been seeing much of you, lately."

"Everything's fine." Baekhyun smiles brightly at Chanyeol. "Why are you worried about me? I'm not the one persistently in danger of being wounded by my overgrown pets."

"The ponies aren't pets," Chanyeol says, worried expression on his face swiftly transforming into his intense lecture mode one. "Baekhyunnie, just because an animal has been trained doesn't mean you can change its _nature_ \--"

Baekhyun picks up a piece of fried cabbage and shoves it into Chanyeol's mouth. "No one cares, Chanyeol," he says, as Chanyeol sputters, pieces of cabbage sticking to his lips.

⚘❁⚘

The rainwater Baekhyun collects keeps longer in the winter. In the summer, it can be dangerous, attracting mosquitoes to the still water that's just warm enough to lay eggs in.

In the winter though, he can leave the bucket out until the plants he keeps inside need water, and then bring it inside for a while to get slightly warmer before he uses it to water all the plants.

Baekhyun has always thought it was funny that on an island surrounded by water, there's too often a shortage of it. He can use the brackish water piped in from the inlets for most things, like filling the wooden tub or washing the floors, but fresh water can be in limited supply in some years. It's been raining a lot this year, so there's no fear of drought, but it's habit by now to save the rainwater.

The chasteberry plants are getting too big for their pots. "I'll plant you out back this spring," Baekhyun says to one of them as he pours some of the water into the parched soil. "So just stick it out for a couple more months."

"So bored you're talking to the plants?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun jumps, almost dropping the bucket.

His hair is wet, sticking out in every direction from the shower, and Baekhyun can smell the fresh herbs of the soap Kyungsoo has been using lately, that he'd selected from one of the old ladies who sells a bunch of types down at the edge of the village, out towards Baekhyun and Jongdae's inlet. "Not bored," Baekhyun says. "Plants grow better if you talk to them."

"Hmm," says Kyungsoo, walking over toward the counter and pulling out the nearly empty can of instant coffee. He turns on the stove, too, filling a small pan with water to boil it.

"Are you sure you need more coffee?" Baekhyun asks. "You probably have, like, caffeine poisoning at this point. You're probably pissing coffee." He sets the bucket down, dragging the toe of his sock through the small puddle of spilled water on the floor. "That can't feel the greatest. I bet—"

"Baekhyun," Kyungsoo says, "you're rambling."

"Right," Baekhyun says. "Well, maybe I'll just chat with the plants, then, since they never tell me I'm talking too much."

"That's because they can't." Kyungsoo makes his coffee, pouring the hot water over meted out instant mix as Baekhyun starts to sing under his breath.

Cup between his hands, he walks over to Baekhyun. He's close enough that Baekhyun wrinkles his nose at the smell of coffee. Baekhyun fixates, briefly, on his small, short fingers, and the way they barely overlap, and then he looks back to his plants, dipping his fingers in the water and then shaking them over the top layers of the chasteberries, like a tiny rain shower.

"You're so mean to me, Kyungsoo," Baekhyun says, and he dips his fingers in the water again before he flicks them at Kyungsoo, letting a couple of drops hit him.

Unimpressed, Kyungsoo seems to internally debate the effort of punching Baekhyun versus continuing to sip his hot coffee, and settles for scowling. Baekhyun laughs at him, and some of Kyungsoo's obvious sleepiness falls away from him as he fights his own smile.

"What are those?" Kyungsoo asks. His voice is rough. Baekhyun looks over his shoulder at Kyungsoo. Still so tired. There's lethargy in the tilt of his head.

"My plants?" Baekhyun asks. "Oh, you know, I'm not much of a gardener, but I keep these growing." He drops down into a crouch to check the stems, and he's pleased to find no brown spots.

"I've never seen that kind of plant before." Kyungsoo's socks have gone from a deep black to a more faded shade. The sun steals a little of their color each time Baekhyun sets them out to dry.

"In the autumn these blossoms release a fruit." Baekhyun holds up the remains of a stalk of lavender blossoms, catching it between his first two fingers, and Kyungsoo shuffles closer, leaning over to see. He exhales, coffee breath stirring the hair at the crown of Baekhyun's head. "Gray, in the shape of a bean."

"Do you eat it?" Kyungsoo asks. Baekhyun shifts away from him when he feels a heat begin to climb his neck and settle in his cheeks. "The fruit?"

"No," Baekhyun says. "Well, yeah, actually, but not as food. It's medicine."

"Medicine for what?" Kyungsoo asks. He squats down so that he's next to Baekhyun. His thigh is adjacent to Baekhyun's, and Kyungsoo is almost feverishly warm. Chanyeol's always said that people's bodies burn hotter when they don't sleep a lot, and Baekhyun can't remember why because he doesn't care at all, but Kyungsoo's so so warm that Baekhyun skips a breath or two.

"So the haenyeo," says Baekhyun, swallowing and then turning to grin at Kyungsoo, "they dive a lot, right?" He takes his left hand and imitates the motion, the way the divers bob above the surface on their floats and then quickly piston back down to the seafloor. Kyungsoo follows the motion of his hand for a moment, then lifts his eyes back to Baekhyun's face. Baekhyun avoids his gaze, because he's all too conscious of Kyungsoo's warmth next to him. "That kinda thing, you know, the constant coming up and going down, it hurts your head. The divers get dizzy, and their heads start to hurt. Pain in the ears and in the jaw, too." He runs his thumb against the dried out blooms of the chasteberry plant he's still got between his fingers. It's not dead, but its season has already ended, even as the plant continues to grow. "So you take the fruit and you boil it. The sumbegi," and he crumbles the dry blossoms in his hands, releasing the bitter scent, "helps ease the pain. The haenyeo used to take it before they dived, as tea or as a supplement, to prevent the aches."

"Used to?" The jagged edges of Kyungsoo's voice cut into Baekhyun's concentration. The sleep-rough texture of it is wonderful. Baekhyun could listen to Kyungsoo talk forever, but Kyungsoo's words are doled out slowly and measuredly, in well thought out, too-small doses.

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "Now it's powdered aspirin, or something like that." A white powder in a square wax paper packet. "But before that, _before_ , it was just..." He rubs his hands on his burning thighs, and finally looks at Kyungsoo again. He's still so exhausted looking, face filled with sleepy shadows and patches of dry redness, and his hair has grown out so long that it covers the top part of his ears. "My grandmother used to spend two days, in the autumn, boiling, making a tincture. The smell, it was worse than the fish, you know?" He laughs. "And she would always send it over to my mom with the weekend fishermen who came to our village to get their nets repaired."

Baekhyun's dad had taught him how to fix nets at age five. _"You've got hands just like your mom,"_ he'd always say, as he wrapped his large square hands around Baekhyun's, showing him how to form the knots. _"This will be a cinch for you."_

"Was your mom a diver too?" asks Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun stands up, too quickly, shooting pains surging through his legs as the blood flow speeds up and he winces, before looking down at Kyungsoo, whose full lower lip is captured by his teeth, white teeth in pink flesh.

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "Always turned her shoes the wrong way at the door. That's what the haenyeo do, you know? In case they don't come back."

"In case they don't come back," repeats Kyungsoo. "Seems like a dangerous job." He stands too, and moves back toward the counter, adding more hot water to his mug from the pan, and another half portion of instant mix. Baekhyun watches Kyungsoo stir, with his steady, even motions, and takes a deep breath.

"It is," says Baekhyun. "Super dangerous. Not the sort of thing for the faint of heart." It's the whirlpools, especially in the winter, when the wind is so strong and the water is so cold.

Kyungsoo looks up suddenly, and manages to grab and hold Baekhyun's gaze. "I wouldn't think it could be," he says.

"That's why the women of Jeju are famous," says Baekhyun. "They're tougher than anyone else." The smell of the chasteberry blossoms sticks to his hand when he reaches up to scratch his nose. "The divers don't want their daughters to be divers, though, now that there are other options."

"I knew..." Kyungsoo stops, and takes a deliberate sip of his drink. He doesn't take his eyes off Baekhyun, and Baekhyun doesn't look away either. "If the divers don't use that plant anymore, why do you grow it?"

Baekhyun chuckles, and finally tears away. He doesn't know why his chest feels so tight. Maybe it's because he remembers his grandmother's hands as she squeezed the boiled berries, the juice streaming through her fingers and into the pink plastic bowl with the roughed up edges she always used. Maybe, worse than that, it's because he remembers his mother, in vague shapes, a blurry face with a spoon in hand, swallowing a mouthful of the bitter scented sumbegi before she ruffled his hair, tiptoeing so she wouldn't wake Baekhyun's dad.

"I dunno," he says. "When I inherited this place from my grandmother, I guess I inherited all of her habits, too."

The weight of Kyungsoo's eyes has Baekhyun fidgeting. Then Kyungsoo turns on the sink tap, pouring out the coffee and efficiently washing out the mug. Watching him is almost, Baekhyun thinks, like watching a machine, because Kyungsoo's movements are so rigid and exact. But Kyungsoo's hair flops into his face, shaggy and messy, and his sleeves slip down and get wet as he washes, and he's imperfect in so many tiny ways.

Baekhyun walks over to Kyungsoo and pulls at his sleeves, making sure that the elastic at the wrists clings past his elbows, his fingertips dragging up Kyungsoo's forearms along with the wet cotton. His chest presses to Kyungsoo's back, Kyungsoo's hair tickling his nose this time. His hair is so thick and so dark, and Baekhyun loves how it doesn't hold the light that streams in through the kitchen window.

"I need you at work," Kyungsoo says. "To push up my sleeves for me."

"There's a career for me in Seoul after all, then," Baekhyun says. "Do Kyungsoo's sleeve maintenance associate." He laughs, and Kyungsoo's hair moves with it.

Kyungsoo turns off the water, and Baekhyun steps back to give him space to turn. Thoroughly drying off his hands, Kyungsoo does, and Baekhyun is still closer than he should be. Kyungsoo gives him a glare, but it's softened by the sleepiness around his mouth. "You'd probably talk through all my meetings," Kyungsoo says. "We'd never get any work done around your insistent chit-chatting."

"Plus you wear those tailored suits," Baekhyun says, wrinkling his nose. "The sleeves fit." He licks his lips, and tastes sleep at the corners of them. His breath is probably horrible. He hadn't expected to see Kyungsoo this morning, not really. "So I'd just be in the way of your designing mojo or whatever."

"I don't design," says Kyungsoo. "I correct designs. I figure out if they are safe, functional, and efficient. There are people on my team who design, but I'm quality control."

"So you make sure that the people on your team have thought of everything," says Baekhyun, "by thinking of everything first?"

"Yes." Kyungsoo looks over Baekhyun's shoulder. There's nothing there. "I have to think about every single part of every design." A muscle in his jaw twitches.

"It's a good thing you're so… ah… detail oriented then, right?" Kyungsoo, who lines up the side dish plates in neat little rows and organizes Baekhyun's magazines, seems like the perfect person to double-check construction plans, in Baekhyun's book. Baekhyun grins, but Kyungsoo doesn't grin back, his hands grappling for something to do and settling on balling up into fists. "Kyungsoo?"

"I'm sorry," Kyungsoo says, his voice tight and controlled, "I'm more tired than I thought." The sleeve on his left arm slides down, catching lopsided on his wrist. "I'm going to take a nap."

 _No you're not,_ Baekhyun thinks, and he hopes this ends, after Christmas, because whatever Christmas is for Kyungsoo, it's taking him and turning him inside out.

"Yeah, of course," Baekhyun says. He carelessly reaches out and brushes aside Kyungsoo's hair, but Kyungsoo flinches, so Baekhyun quickly retracts his hand. "Are you…" Spines, all of them, and Baekhyun backpedals. "I can fill the bath, if you want."

"What?" Kyungsoo is chewing on his lip again, his eyebrows smushed together. The dry skin on his nose is flaking, some. Baekhyun wonders how Kyungsoo still manages to be so handsome, like this.

"Seom ogalpi isn't just good for physical aches," explains Baekhyun, plucking at the hem of his shirt. "It might help you sleep." He drawls the last word out, and Kyungsoo stares at him for a while, silent, before he shakes his head.

"No thank you," says Kyungsoo. "I just need some time to myself."

He leaves, and Baekhyun resists the urge to follow and inform Kyungsoo that he's had plenty of time to himself, and that it seems to be causing more harm than good, but as much as Kyungsoo has become a friend, Baekhyun thinks that might be past Kyungsoo's odd, complicated boundaries.

So he takes the weird sense of loss and seals it up, and tries to figure out what to do with his day. He goes to his own room, putting breakfast aside for the moment, and opens up the netbook, which has been sitting unplugged on his desk for a week now, unopened. He needs to return it to the locked cabinet in the hallway, but he keeps hesitating, because he should write to Yixing.

He busies himself with games all morning. Gamgyul season is finally over, the trees no longer spouting new fruit, and it leaves Baekhyun at a loose end. He thinks about going to visit Jongdae, but he remembers that Jongdae and Jongdeok had gone to visit their aunt and would be gone until late tomorrow, bringing Soojung back with them. In the end, all he does is scrub out two of the empty guest rooms, which had started to collect dust from disuse, and wash the windows in the main room.

When he finally sets up the computer and opens his e-mail, there's a message from his brother. _Get the phone fixed,_ it says, _so I can check up on you sometimes._ Baekhyun can't figure out the tone of the message. Maybe it's Baebeom's impatient voice, the one he saves for Baekhyun laughing too loudly the night before an exam or Baekhyun not being ready to go when he drives a rental car down to the guesthouse to pick Baekhyun up for the drive to their dad's for Chuseok and Seollal.

Baekhyun replies with a simple _everything's fine_ and then scrolls down.

He also has a new message from Yixing. _Should I visit in the spring?_ Yixing's asked before, but he's never made it. Still… Baekhyun clicks his nails against the table.

⚘❁⚘

The thing is, Baekhyun's gotten used to Kyungsoo watching over his shoulder as he cooks, and Kyungsoo's frustrated noises when Baekhyun teases him relentlessly, and the cute way he purses his mouth when he thinks Baekhyun's talking just to talk, which is pretty often.

After six weeks of Kyungsoo's surprisingly intrusive presence, his special brand of loud-quiet, Kyungsoo's withdrawal back into his room leaves Baekhyun feeling somewhat empty. In a lot of ways, he'd gotten used to Kyungsoo's presence, and he misses him, even though he hasn't left yet.

"It'll be worse when he really leaves," Baekhyun tells himself, frustrated, because it's true. "Don't be a baby." He's very used to people leaving, and it never actually gets easier. It's just part of life in a small village like this one, where opportunities await, everywhere but here. It's just Baekhyun and Jongdae, really, watching everybody leave one by one.

Kyungsoo has a whole separate life in Seoul. He's here for now, Baekhyun's to borrow not to keep, and Baekhyun shouldn't be disappointed to eat breakfast alone. Still, he is, and his hot chocolate feels like it weighs a hundred kilos in the bottom of his stomach.

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun wakes up Thursday night, and can't go back to sleep. At first, he thinks it's because the wind is blowing so hard outside that the house is whining, but then he hears footsteps in the hall walking toward the kitchen, and then water hitting the bowl of the sink, and thinks his body has woken up because Kyungsoo is still awake and making noise.

Kyungsoo's hands had shaken, at dinner. He'd had three cups of coffee. "Are you okay?" Baekhyun had asked him, and Kyungsoo had shrugged, which was not an answer, and they both knew it.

Jongdae had given Baekhyun a considering look when Baekhyun had asked for advice, when he'd visited. "You're good with people," Jongdae had said. "You'll figure it out."

"Kyungsoo isn't like you or Chanyeol. And he's not like Soojung or Yixing, either." Baekhyun had chewed thoughtfully on a piece of ddeok. "He's a hedgehog."

"A hedgehog?"

"Yeah. A really miserable hedgehog."

"I'd be miserable if people thought I was a hedgehog," replied Jongdae, and he and Baekhyun had gotten into a fight over the last piece of chicken in Jongdae's living room. For a few minutes, that odd distance Baekhyun's been ignoring had been gone as Baekhyun had shrieked with laughter, Jongdae jamming fingers into his ribs and tickling him until he cried for mercy.

He wishes everything was as easy as his friendship with Jongdae can be, at times like that.

Pushing back the blankets, he wiggles out of bed, wincing at the immediate wave of cold and whimpering as he stands up, looking around for a pair of socks but unwilling to turn on the light to find them.

He steps out into the hall. It's dark there, too, and when he wanders down to the end, he finds Kyungsoo sitting in the dark in the main room, only the tiniest slivers of moonlight creeping in to allow Baekhyun to make out the shadow of Kyungsoo near the window.

"Couldn't sleep?" Baekhyun asks lightly, feeling around on the wall until he finds the light, then flipping the switch. Kyungsoo jerks, almost dropping his phone, and Baekhyun comes to sit next to him on the cold floor, grabbing one of the soft cushions for padding. "I'm no expert, but it might help if you drank less coffee."

"Shut up, Baekhyun," Kyungsoo says, lightly jabbing Baekhyun with his elbow. He sets his phone atop a stack of magazines, and turns his full attention to Baekhyun. Self-consciously, Baekhyun combs his fingers through his sleep-mussed hair, and then wipes at his mouth, in case he'd drooled in his sleep or something. "Did I wake you up?"

"No," Baekhyun says. "Not really." He hums, and then rubs his arms. It's so cold, tonight, and he can't believe he'd crawled out of his bed in the middle of the night, even for Kyungsoo. "It was the house."

"Surprised you could even hear it over your own obnoxious sleeping noises," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun makes a lazy protesting grunt that sounds more squeaky than threatening. "You tried to talk to me, that one time. In your sleep."

"I'm definitely not louder than this wind." The wind blows, then, a punctuation, and there's the low whistle of it in the wood of the guesthouse, slipping along the walls. "The ghosts think I should be awake tonight."

"More of your folk tales, Baekhyun?" Kyungsoo drops his hands to his lap. Baekhyun's tired enough to follow with his gaze, down to where Kyungsoo's bare legs are crisscrossed in front of him, goosebumps rising on the pale skin of his thighs.

"You really don't like to wear pants," Baekhyun says, sleep clouding the direct line between his brain and his mouth. Kyungsoo blinks at him then gives him a wry smile.

"Not when I sleep," he says. "It makes it hard to move around."

The hair on the front of Kyungsoo's thigh is fine and Baekhyun probably wouldn't even notice it if Kyungsoo weren't cold. Reaching out with his hand, Baekhyun soothes the hair flat on Kyungsoo's closest thigh. "Skin's cold," he says, when Kyungsoo jumps.

"I hadn't planned on getting out of bed," Kyungsoo says, putting his hand on top of Baekhyun's. His hand is as cold as his thigh, and he pushes down, making Baekhyun realize he's been rubbing slow circles into the skin with his thumb.

Baekhyun draws his hand back, sticking it into the pocket of his sweatshirt. The skin of his hands feels like it's on fire. "I…" There are always hundreds of words at the tip of his tongue, but he's too tired to access them. "What good is your phone?" is all he manages, and Kyungsoo closes his eyes, briefly, dark lashes long but spread out. They're not like Chanyeol, who has thick lashes that make the girls jealous, and they don't curl like Jongdae's do, sometimes, catching raindrops.

"I was using Line," says Kyungsoo. "My brother."

"Do you miss him?" Baekhyun asks. "Sometimes I miss my brother." He yawns, and his jaw cracks. "We're far apart in age, though. My brother is six years older than I am, so it's more like Jongdae is my brother, a lot of the time. Or Yixing."

"I miss him," Kyungsoo says. "He has a wife and two daughters. Twins. I miss them, too. They don't…" He stops. Considers. That slow Kyungsoo deliberation, where he decides exactly what he wants to say. "My brother worries about me. He's sweet." Kyungsoo scratches at a patch of dry skin above his elbow. "He's more like you than like me."

"Like me?" Baekhyun wonders if that means loud, or if it means talkative, or if it means dancing in the hallways with a mop for a mic.

Kyungsoo must not be inclined to clarify. "Tell me your ghost story, Byun Baekhyun." Kyungsoo's hand lingers on his thigh, where Baekhyun had touched him, and he's licking his lips. His hand doesn't take up as much space as Baekhyun's had, and his fingers don't curl around to the inside, either. Kyungsoo's ears are pink, Baekhyun thinks, but fading, and he's not upset, and that unwinds Baekhyun's nerves enough to let him tease.

"It's not a ghost story," he replies, leaning backwards slowly until his weight is on his forearms. The wooden floor is tough on his elbows. "It's just, you know, local legends and stuff. Not something made up to scare kids, or anything like that. Just regular, run of the mill folklore."

"Tell me anyway." Kyungsoo gets onto his knees and slides his cushion across the floor until it's next to Baekhyun's head. Then he lies down, on his stomach, and folds his arms, looking up at Baekhyun through his hair as he turns his head to face him.

"When someone dies around here," says Baekhyun, "we don't bury them in cemeteries, or turn them to ash, right? We bury them nearby, close to home. All the land around here, that's my mother's family's land. Everyone's buried around here, where we can keep an eye on them, and they can keep an eye on us. There was a period of time—ah, I don't want to drone on like Chanyeol when he gets all lecture-y, or something, probably—but the people here weren't allowed to perform the shamanic rites, so islanders did it in secret."

"What does that have to do with the wind noise?" Kyungsoo bends one leg up, swiveling his foot at the ankle. His feet are as small as his hands, short toes and filed flat toenails.

"Well," Baekhyun says. "After…" He looks away from Kyungsoo and up to the ceiling. "Well, the spirits of the dead people, we have to get them to the afterlife. Through the twelve gates, right?"

"Yes," Kyungsoo says. "I know."

"Here," Baekhyun says, "we had, or have, I guess, lots of people…" He lies the rest of the way down, now, his head thunking on the floor, "who haven't been sent off to the afterlife correctly."

"Like the ones in the trees, on the way up to the halmang-dang." Kyungsoo lifts himself up onto his elbows. "So there are dissatisfied spirits lurking in the guesthouse?"

He's looking at Baekhyun carefully, kind of the way he looks at those plans: the same sort of intensity, anyway, and Baekhyun isn't sure if he likes it. "Not just the guesthouse."

"All over the village?" Kyungsoo pulls his hair out of his face again, and holds it, dark strands between white fingers. In the dim light of the main room, where only the single switch Baekhyun had flipped illuminates, Kyungsoo commands all of Baekhyun's attention. He usually does, with the way he communicates with the smallest expressions, but right now, especially, Baekhyun can't look away from the strength of his jaw, which contrasts so sharply with the softness of his cheeks.

Sitting up, Baekhyun curls his legs into his chest so he can hook his arms under his knees. Yixing has always called it his thinking pose, but Jongdae says it makes him look like he did when he was still a little kid, before he got too tall to fit under the tables in Jongdae's mom's restaurant. Like this, he can rest his forehead on his knees, and stare at the cotton of the sweatpants he'd stolen from Baekbeom all those years ago.

His cushion has slipped out from under him, and now his tailbone hurts. Baekhyun doesn't bother to fix it.

"All over the island," says Baekhyun. "Not just here. Jejudo has changed a lot over the years. Makes sense that there would be a few restless spirits." The house moans again and Baekhyun shivers, not from the noise but from the chill, seeping up through the soles of his feet. "Nights like tonight make it hard to sleep through their complaints, is all."

"You're not afraid of haunted houses?" asks Kyungsoo. He's sitting up now too, rubbing up and down his shins to warm them, and they're so smooth. Baekhyun wonders if they're as soft as the skin of Kyungsoo's thighs.

"Oh I am," Baekhyun says, "I'm terrified of them. But I know _these_ ghosts, I guess." He lifts his head, only to find Kyungsoo staring at him. The exhaustion of Kyungsoo's sleepless nights means that his eyelids droop, but his eyes are alert, even if they're still red. "Jeju is full of ghosts."

"I'd heard," Kyungsoo says vaguely. A single finger scratching his scalp.

"Is that why you can't sleep?" Baekhyun asks. He watches, but Kyungsoo doesn't curl up or curl away from the question Baekhyun has been wanting to ask all week. Maybe he's too tired. Instead, he's exhaling, tension seeming to bleed out of him and fill the air, enough that Baekhyun can feel the pressure from it when he breathes in. "Because of our ghosts?

"I don't need Jeju's ghosts for that," Kyungsoo says, finally. "I have enough of my own." He stands up, and Baekhyun watches him, tilting his head back to keep his eyes on Kyungsoo's face. Kyungsoo looks down at him. "I have your chaos, too."

"Hey," Baekhyun says, "I thought I was just white noise."

"There was a horror movie about that," says Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun pouts at him.

"Don't be a bully," says Baekhyun, yawning, his eyes scrunching closed until he's finished. When he peels them open again, Kyungsoo is staring at him, Adam's apple bobbing as he swallows. "What?"

"You'd have been a good teacher," Kyungsoo says, turning his face away. "That's all." He rests his cool hand on the back of Baekhyun's neck, for a moment, and then he's gone, leaving Baekhyun alone in the main room, the heat of his own hand not enough to erase Kyungsoo's touch.

⚘❁⚘

On Friday, four days before Christmas, Kyungsoo sleeps. He doesn't mean to, Baekhyun is sure, but when he comes home from riding with Chanyeol and Jinri and a bunch of tourists that Baekhyun and Chanyeol had entertained like a duo stage act the entire time, Kyungsoo is curled up on the floor of his room, not even under the covers. He has his laptop open on the left desk, that is not quite even with the right one, from Baekhyun's room, and it's blinking low battery, which means he's hopefully been asleep for at least an hour, but probably not more than that.

First, Baekhyun plugs in Kyungsoo's computer for him, making sure to keep the cord straight because Kyungsoo most likely cares about that sort of thing even if Baekhyun doesn't. When he does, the reminder goes away, leaving Kyungsoo's screen to display more of those plans. Baekhyun doesn't know if they're new or old, but either way, it's none of his business, so he turns to look again at the man on the floor.

Even in sleep, Kyungsoo is distraught. He's on his side, in the fetal position, his shirt too loose around the neck and revealing a slice of pale collarbone. He shivers, every few seconds, and his toes are curled in. "Yah," Baekhyun says, quietly, "don't sleep without blankets in the winter, you nudist."

He steps carefully over Kyungsoo, to his bedding, and tries to figure out if he can move Kyungsoo onto it without waking him. Probably not. So he grabs two of the folded blankets at the end of the bed and shakes them out from Kyungsoo's neat squares, and then maneuvers back around Kyungsoo with them draped over his arm. He gingerly gets down on his knees, and studies Kyungsoo's sleeping face.

There's no change from his last check. Baekhyun slowly spreads out the first blanket, the thinner one, to cover Kyungsoo, then adds the second one on top, smoothing out the wrinkles.

Kyungsoo's eyebrows bunch together in confusion, maybe at not being cold anymore, but he doesn't wake up. Baekhyun reaches out with one hand toward Kyungsoo's face, and he uses his thumb to brush the space between Kyungsoo's thick brows, until it relaxes. He lets his thumb drag down, then, to the bridge of Kyungsoo's nose, and down further, to the groove above his upper lip.

"What are you doing, Baekhyun?" he whispers, aloud, and then starts to draw back, but Kyungsoo grabs him, and Baekhyun squeaks. Baekhyun stares at the point of contact, wondering what to do. He tugs, lightly, and Kyungsoo tightens his grip.

At first, Baekhyun thinks that Kyungsoo has woken up. He searches his mind for a teasing comment, something to make it not weird that he was touching Kyungsoo's face in his sleep, but then he realizes Kyungsoo is still sleeping. He hasn't woken up at all. Baekhyun gently pulls again, hoping Kyungsoo will let go. Kyungsoo moans, then, softly, his eyelashes fluttering, and Baekhyun's throat goes dry.

Baekhyun bites his lip, nibbling on the lower one as he thinks about his options. Kyungsoo's hold is steadfast, and really, Baekhyun isn't in a hurry to do anything else right now. There would be nothing wrong with sitting beside Kyungsoo for a while. Maybe he's having a nightmare, and Baekhyun's a replacement for a stuffed animal he has on his bed back home.

Baekhyun stifles a laugh at the idea of Kyungsoo hugging a plush toy to his chest in a grip as strong as the one he's got on Baekhyun's wrist. A toy with round eyes like its captor, maybe. Shifting onto his side, Baekhyun tries to twist his body into a more comfortable position, and ends up on his side, facing Kyungsoo.

From this angle, he has an even better view of Kyungsoo's sleeping face. Up close, Baekhyun can't stop his gaze from lingering on the bow of Kyungsoo's upper lip, and the fall of his hair across his forehead.

Baekhyun's hand is trapped between them, but like this, it's not uncomfortable. "I'm not going anywhere," Baekhyun says, so quietly he's almost mouthing the words. "You can let go, you know." His breath makes Kyungsoo flutter his eyelashes. "It's not me that's gonna go anywhere."

Baekhyun's feet are cold. Snagging a corner of the top blanket between his first and second toe, Baekhyun pulls on it, trying not to move enough that he wakes Kyungsoo up. He succeeds in getting his feet under cover, and he sighs with relief.

He doesn't remember falling asleep. In his head, he'd only been trying to remember where he'd put the extension cord that he uses whenever he has to plug in the DVD player, and maybe thinking about how excited he is to see Soojung this weekend. His thoughts drifted from there, to how he already misses the steady supply of tangerines, and to how they're almost out of rice and he'll have to go down to town to get some soon. He also needs petroleum for his scooter. He'll have to take the old plastic container down to the gas station one village down 1132 to fill it up when he goes, so that he can just top off the fuel tank without an extra trip next time.

The next thing he knows, he's waking up warm. Not just warm, but hot, a thin layer of sweat on his skin as he shifts in place, opening his eyes rapidly when he finds it hard to move.

His arm is across Kyungsoo's stomach. Somehow, as they'd slept, Kyungsoo had rolled onto his back and taken Baekhyun with him, and Baekhyun had apparently obediently let this happen. Their legs are tangled under the thinner blanket: the thicker one isn't in Baekhyun's immediate range of sight, which is mostly the top of Kyungsoo's head. Kyungsoo's knee is digging into Baekhyun's thigh, and the weight of Baekhyun's leg has probably put Kyungsoo's entire left leg to sleep.

He shifts again, and Kyungsoo whines, a short, frustrated sound that makes Baekhyun freeze. He can hear his heartbeat in his ears, steady and loud, and suddenly he's keenly aware that Kyungsoo's breath is sticky on his neck, and that one of his hands, the one not still around his wrist, is under Baekhyun's shirt, against the skin of his waist.

Baekhyun's first impulse is to panic. He's practically on top of Kyungsoo, the left half of his body on him and Kyungsoo tucked under his chin. It's intimate, and Kyungsoo is someone would consider a friend, but this is.... Baekhyun's whole body tenses up, and maybe that's what finally awakens Kyungsoo, whose lips move against the skin of Baekhyun's neck.

"Baekhyun?" Confusion, mostly, and maybe dry amusement, Baekhyun isn't sure. Kyungsoo's grip on his wrist loosens when Baekhyun tugs, and Baekhyun takes the opportunity to pull it back to himself, sliding off Kyungsoo to lie completely next to him instead. The blanket catches on his calves, and comes with him, leaving Kyungsoo's bare legs uncovered.

"You grabbed me," Baekhyun says quickly. Kyungsoo's arm is still under him, hand still at his waist, but Baekhyun's too tangled in the blanket to move fast enough to make this less awkward. "While you were sleeping. I was just trying to put covers on you."

"Oh," Kyungsoo says. There's a rosy color to his face, not embarrassment, Baekhyun thinks, but something else. "I was having a dream, and…" He clears his throat. There's a ragged edge to his voice that Baekhyun really likes. It's Kyungsoo's _‘I haven't had my coffee yet'_ voice. "I'm sorry."

"I could have left if I really wanted to," Baekhyun says. "But you haven't been sleeping well. I didn't want to wake you up, if this was the first time you'd managed to let yourself fall out in days. So I just… well I stretched out beside you, because my arm was twisted, kind of, and… I was thinking about this weekend, maybe, and then, I don't know, I think—"

"Shh," Kyungsoo says, closing his eyes. He licks his dry lips, and Baekhyun's heart is still beating so fucking fast. "Baekhyun, I am not awake enough to hear your life story."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "Sorry, you know, I'm just very…"

"I know," Kyungsoo says. His voice is so sleep-rough, and it clings thick and syrupy to the insides of Baekhyun's ribs. He doesn't seem quite awake yet, and Baekhyun isn't sure if he should mention that Kyungsoo's hand is still at his waist, a firm touch that's making it hard for Baekhyun to collect his thoughts. "It's cute sometimes, the way you can't stop yourself from talking. Moving."

Baekhyun swallows. "Yeah?" His voice wobbles. He doesn't know why. He and Jongdae have woken up like this before after a night of heavy drinking, too much in each other's personal space, and Baekhyun hadn't felt this dizzy, this flushed. He's so fixated on the brush of Kyungsoo's skin against the cotton of his sweats, and the heat of Kyungsoo, half beneath him like this, drawing patterns onto Baekhyun's ticklish waist with lazy fingers. ""I'm always cute, you're just in denial."

"Hmm," Kyungsoo says. He takes his free hand --and why hasn't he let go of Baekhyun's waist with the other?-- and runs it through his hair, wincing as his fingers get tangled. "I don't know about that."

It must be late afternoon now, because the sunlight is coming into the room through Kyungsoo's window. "Did you… think I was someone else?" Baekhyun asks.

"What?" Kyungsoo blinks at him, and his face is too close. Baekhyun sits up, pulling himself away from Kyungsoo and taking a steadying breath. "I don't understand."

"You grabbed me," Baekhyun says again, scratching his neck and then pulling at the collar of his shirt. "I thought you might be having a nightmare, instead of a regular dream."

"Who would I think you were?" Kyungsoo asks.

"I don't know. Maybe a hot girl, or something." Baekhyun wrinkles his nose. "I really don't know."

"I don't dream about hot girls," says Kyungsoo, sitting up. He stretches his arms above his head, and cracks his neck. "I think I just thought you were warm."

"What kind of guy doesn't dream about hot girls?" Baekhyun asks, grinning at Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo raises his eyebrow at Baekhyun, and something in his face makes Baekhyun's stomach do this weird knotting up thing.

"Do you dream about them?" Kyungsoo asks, and then laughs. His heart smile. His teeth. The rich sound of his laughter. Baekhyun can't take his eyes off him.

"You look better," Baekhyun blurts out. "Like, before you were kinda looking like a zombie, or maybe just a corpse because you weren't really moving that much—"

"I feel better," Kyungsoo admits. "I've been having trouble sleeping." He stands up and walks over to his clean, folded, clothes. He picks up a pair of black tracksuit pants and pulls them on. "It was like that back in Seoul, too."

He's curling forward, and that, combined with the already slight line of his shoulders makes him look smaller as he stands in front of the window. Everything about him is telling Baekhyun not to ask why he can't sleep, and Baekhyun might be pushy about some things, but he knows better than to be pushy when Kyungsoo looks so… defeated.

"Coming here, for a while, helped me..." Kyungsoo plays with the waistband of his pants, stretching the elastic and letting it snap back into place on his hip. "It was far away."

"Far?" Baekhyun isn't sure if Kyungsoo means distance or time. Maybe it's both of those things.

"But the more time passes, the closer it gets, the less I—" Kyungsoo shakes his head. Hedgehog. Baekhyun has to be patient, if he wants to know more about Kyungsoo. And he does. Kyungsoo is fascinating, and Baekhyun can't help but want to know more. "You've helped."

"Which helped more, me or the seom ogalpi soak?" teases Baekhyun lightly, and Kyungsoo chuckles, but it's stilted.

"Picking gamgyul and riding ponies," Kyungsoo says. "Helping you stop murdering eggs when you fry them." He wraps his arms around himself. Baekhyun can see his shoulder blades sticking out, stretching against the fabric of his black shirt. "Those things make it easier to stay out of my own head."

He looks so lost.

So Baekhyun does the same thing he'd do if any of his friends were sad. He walks up behind Kyungsoo and hugs him, his chin digging into Kyungsoo's shoulder. He ignores the heat of it, the way it makes him feel weird, and just hugs him. Lets the heat bleed into his chest and lets his heart start its newfound racing routine, and hugs Kyungsoo until Kyungsoo relaxes into the embrace. "So let me keep distracting you," Baekhyun says, into Kyungsoo's ear, and Kyungsoo shudders.

"Oh trust me," Kyungsoo says, lowly. "You're distracting." Baekhyun wishes he could see Kyungsoo's face, because the tone of his voice is off. "I feel like I shouldn't be distracted, though. Distracted people make mistakes."

"There aren't any mistakes to make here."

"Sure there are," Kyungsoo says. "I—"

Baekhyun's stomach growls, and he lets go of Kyungsoo, stepping back. Kyungsoo chuckles. "I skipped breakfast this morning," says Baekhyun, when Kyungsoo turns to look at him.

"How unlike you," Kyungsoo says. "Does this mean you're going to eat enough food for five people at dinner?"

"What's it to you?" Baekhyun asks, and he rubs the heel of his palm into his stomach.

"I was just wondering how much to make." Kyungsoo smiles at Baekhyun. "It's the least I can do, since I seem to have pulled you into nap time."

"I really didn't mind. Jongdae and I sleep in the same bed, sometimes, when I stay over."

"I'm not Jongdae," says Kyungsoo. His lips are still curled upward in a small smirk.

Baekhyun remembers the way Kyungsoo's lips felt on his neck. "I know that," he says, and then follows Kyungsoo out of the room and into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun end up cooking together, Baekhyun washing the rice as Kyungsoo rubs sauce into the fish with his fingers. Sometimes Kyungsoo stops and just looks at Baekhyun, until Baekhyun looks up from his task to stare back. Then he always looks away, quickly, like he doesn't want to meet Baekhyun's gaze.

They eat dinner, Baekhyun telling Kyungsoo about gossip he heard down in town, and Kyungsoo listens, even if he doesn't know any of the people Baekhyun's talking about. _It's cute, sometimes,_ Baekhyun recalls Kyungsoo saying, and he stops mid-sentence, stumbling over his story, and feels… But Kyungsoo tilts his head, confused, so Baekhyun picks up the threads of it again, putting the thought aside for later.

At least for tonight, Kyungsoo seems to feel a little better, the haunted look still lurking in his eyes, but only at the edges.

Kyungsoo falls asleep again in the main room watching television with Baekhyun, some drama they've both been watching together, even though Kyungsoo hadn't been here for the first four episodes. His head falls onto Baekhyun's shoulder, and Baekhyun must have acid reflux or something, because his chest burns, kind of.

⚘❁⚘

Thanks to the nap he'd taken earlier, Baekhyun wakes up before dawn. He lies twisted up in his blankets for a time, trying to will himself back to sleep, but it's useless.

He gets up and gets dressed, pulling on a warm fleece and a hat and heading out the front door, his shoelaces sloppily tied and his coat unzipped. Outside, the air is brisk. It's coldest in January, but this is cold enough to have Baekhyun's cheeks tingling. He wishes he'd grabbed a scarf. He has five or six of them, but he always forgets.

Walking down to the village, Baekhyun veers towards the dock. The sun is starting to come up, now, and it's really beautiful, the way the ocean flickers amber and purple in the early morning light. He stands and watches, for a short time, just admiring the way the coast slowly illuminates, before he continues down the hill.

There are only a few people out and about, since it's so early. Soon enough, the women will start gathering at the divers' shack, pulling on their black wetsuits and tying the heavy weights around their waists. They'll tip their heads back, pouring powdered aspirin into their mouths, then climb into the back of one of the trucks with their floats to drive down to the section of coast they're swimming out from, green mesh bags waiting to be filled with abalone and other clingers.

Out on one of the boats, there's someone already prowling around, testing ropes probably. It's Minseok's dad's boat, and Baekhyun squints to figure out which Kim it is. Sure enough, it's Minseok. He raises his hand to wave, and plans to call out, but stops himself at the last moment as movement catches his eye.

There's someone with him. At first, Baekhyun thinks it's Minseok's sister, standing up on the inside ridge of the boat, looking down on Minseok from her higher vantage point, but then he notices Minseok's hands on her waist, steadying her, and she's too short to be his sister. The wind blows, then, and she laughs as her hair blows into Minseok's face.

It's Kim Taeyeon, Baekhyun realizes. He watches as she threads her fingers through his hair, and he looks up at her. Baekhyun thinks Minseok is smiling, but he isn't close enough to tell. He can, though, see the path her hand takes, down his face to curl around his jaw. He can see Minseok's hands settling on her waist, and there's no way to misread that.

Taeyeon leans down and kisses Minseok, and Baekhyun immediately looks away, quickening his pace, heading away from the water and back up toward the center of the village. It's nearing seven, now, and stores are starting to open, the smell of tea and broth strong in the air as he gets to the main road.

Baekhyun's hands are jammed into his pockets, clenched into fists. Taeyeon had looked so happy. He'd never shared that kind of smile with her. His whole body feels kind of numb, and his legs keep walking forward but his mind is still back down at the water.

The thing about pipe dreams, Baekhyun knows, is that you know you can't obtain them. They're like so much smoke, really, slowly dispersing into nothingness.

He'd never really been in love with Kim Taeyeon. Maybe he'd thought he was, his final year of high school, but he'd soon figured out that Kim Minseok made his heart beat just as fast, and that maybe what he'd felt so strongly had been admiration, since both Taeyeon and Minseok were so strong and smart and capable.

So he doesn't really know why he feels so empty, knowing she's seeing someone else. It could be that Kim Minseok never dates anyone, so it must be serious. It could be that Kim Taeyeon has always been a sort of anchor for Baekhyun. A talking point about a future he feels so unsure about, even though he knows exactly what it will be like.

He needs eggs, back at the guesthouse. He turns off the main road, on autopilot, looking for a particular shop. The sign above the low-rising door used to be white, but now it's stained darker, brown at the edges and mottled cream at the center, and the sign's faded black hangul letters read produce.

Like every other building in the row, it's had pieces replaced one by one, giving the front face a hodgepodged appearance that's comforting and familiar. There are still the same newspaper clippings in the window that Baekhyun used to force Yixing to read aloud as they ate their ice creams in the summer months out front, dripping onto the sidewalk. Yellowed with age, they're dated six years back. Yixing would fumble with some of the odder words, when Baekhyun first started quizzing him, but by the end of his time here in Jeolbyeog-ri, he'd memorized the articles, and he hadn't had to really read them anymore.

He steps into the shop, over the wooden rise in the doorway, and sees a familiar boy-band sweatshirt peeking out from under a navy-colored coat, with the hood pulled up. He recognizes the sneakers, too: he and Jongdae had chipped in for them together for Soojung's birthday around four years ago. The toes are scruffed, these days, and the soles probably have holes in them, they're worn down so thin. "Do you keep the shoes for sentimental value?"

She spins quickly, almost dropping the eggs in her hand. "Oppa, don't scare me like that."

"I forgot you were in town this weekend," Baekhyun says. "Or, well, not forgot, but."

"Are you still asleep, oppa?" Soojung laughs at him. "We're all coming over tonight. Don't forget." She straightens, and her hood falls back.

Soojung's hair is vivid red. "What do you think?"

"It's bright," replies Baekhyun. He reaches out and grabs a piece of it. It's drier than it used to be between the pads of his fingertips.

"My mom hates it," Soojung says. "But Jongdae-oppa says I look like a fire goddess, and we all know how my mom can be sometimes." When Chanyeol had first moved out here, he'd had hair dyed an obnoxious brassy blond, and Soojung's mother had clicked her tongue at him every time she saw him until he'd cut his hair short and let the color go back to black.

"A fire goddess?" Baekhyun squints at her. "I can see it."

"I just wanted to do something different," she says, as they pay for their food and walk out onto the street. In the light, her hair is even more vibrant. "My friends and I were looking at ads in a magazine and I saw one of the models' hair and I just…" She shrugs. "I just did it."

"No regrets?" Baekhyun asks, as they walk along the road, and Soojung laughs.

"None," she says. "And honestly? I don't think my mom is actually upset about my hair. I think she's more upset about the fact that I can do something like this to it without asking. Or maybe that soon I'll be over in America for school, and I'll be completely out of her grasp."

Baekhyun looks at her, and while he still sees the shadow of the Soojung he knew in high school—the same heart, really, and that same amused smirk—the woman next to him is more confident. She's changed, Baekhyun thinks. She's gotten _bigger_ , maybe, or expanded into this person with so much more depth and experience and ambition. Like the chasteberry plants in his kitchen, she needs more space and fresh soil.

Baekhyun hasn't changed at all. He wonders if he ever will.

"You're really going to America, aren't you?" Baekhyun asks. He can already imagine the empty space across from him down at the restaurant, and the empty spot on the rocks out at the inlet. He and Jongdae always get drunker when Soojung's not there to sip away a third of the alcohol they've brought.

"Yes," Soojung says, "I am." She gives him an arch look. "Problem?" Her expression dares him to say he has one.

Baekhyun switches his eggs to his other side, so that he can grab Soojung's hand with his, and squeeze it.

"I'm jealous," he says, making sure to keep his tone teasing. "My little sister, all grown up."

"I'm not your little sister," Soojung says. "I'll take sister, but I'm not very little."

"You're littler than I am," he replies.

She pulls her hand free of his and lightly swats his arm. "Say that again, oppa, and I'll have to get strict with you."

"Pretty soon, you'll have a boyfriend and I'll have to beat him up." Baekhyun walks ahead some, to dodge another swat, and spins so that he can walk backwards and taunt Soojung.

But Soojung looks down instead of threatening him, and her hair falls to obscure her face. "I'll never forgive you if you play protective," she says. Her voice sounds sort of choked, and Baekhyun wonders if he's said something wrong.

"Then _you'd_ better not get a boyfriend," Baekhyun says, keeping his words jovial. "Then I won't have to."

"You would never beat anyone up, anyway," she says, finally looking up, her mouth still slightly turned down at the corners. Upon seeing Baekhyun's grin, though, the expression is replaced with genuine annoyance. The authoritative lift to her eyebrow makes Baekhyun laugh, and after a moment of staring him down, she joins him.

"You're right," he says. "Besides, you have great taste in people. I'd never second-guess you, Soojung-ah."

"Good," she says. The look in her eyes is odd. "Then I won't second guess your girlfriend choices." Soojung throws her hair over her shoulder. "Not that you'll ever have a girlfriend."

Baekhyun's mind drifts to this morning, down at the dock, where he'd seen Kim Taeyeon leaning forward to plant a kiss on Kim Minseok's mouth, her fingers curling just behind his ear as she cupped his jaw. Then, for some reason, he thinks about Kyungsoo, and the way he'd looked the morning after their first joint laundry day, his nose buried in the material of his shirt as he inhaled the scent of the sea. "You never know," he says. "Kim Taeyeon is going to fall for me eventually."

"I'm sure," Soojung says, as they approach her house. "It's just a matter of time."

Baekhyun smiles broadly. "Right," he says, clutching the plastic bag in his hand tighter. "I'll see you tonight?"

"You will," Soojung replies, smiling back.

Kyungsoo is gone when he comes back, and so is the car. He returns three hours later with an armful of plans, going into his room after a quiet "hello", and Baekhyun wishes he knew what was stealing Kyungsoo's smile.

⚘❁⚘

 

"So how long are you staying in Jeolbyeog-ri, Kyungsoo?"

Chanyeol had shown up four hours ago, and Jongdae had come shortly after with Soojung in tow, and they'd settled down in the main room. Baekhyun had dragged the DVD player out for the occasion, and Jongdae had brought a pile of his favorites, all things they'd seen a million times before, since they never watch anything new at movie nights.

At first, Baekhyun thought Kyungsoo might not be coming out to join them. He'd spent most of the day in his room after breakfast, and while he hadn't been as sleepy looking, he'd still seemed closed to Baekhyun, his spines extended, as he'd rearranged everything on the table several times until it had looked somewhat like his screen when Baekhyun had taught him Tetris.

But as Jongdae had started whining about Baekhyun hogging all the snacks, and Chanyeol and Soojung had worked together to open and pour the makgeolli, Kyungsoo had approached the room, lurking in the doorway until Baekhyun looked up and smiled at him, with an _"aren't you going to join us?"_

"Not many people come here to visit and end up staying, besides Chanyeol here," Jongdae says, and Chanyeol shakes his head.

"I don't technically live here," he clarifies. "I live the next village over. I just happen to like you guys."

"We don't like you," Baekhyun replies, and then laughs as Chanyeol throws one of the screwcaps from the makgeolli bottles at his face. He catches it, and the tiny plastic teeth on the bottle cap dig into his hand as he squeezes it. "You almost trampled me to death. Inauspicious."

"Maybe if you weren't the same size as the stable puppies—" Chanyeol starts, but then he seems to realize he isn't in a room that's exactly full of tall people. "This isn't fair. I'm outnumbered."

Baekhyun throws the cap back, and it hits Chanyeol right in the forehead as Jongdae cackles and Soojung pretends not to laugh at them.

Kyungsoo's back curls, the silly little hedgehog, and Baekhyun scoots closer to him, until their shoulders touch. "Sorry," he says. "We're probably talking over you."

"I was planning to stay until the end of January," says Kyungsoo. "We're breaking ground for my firm's new project in early March. I should probably be there for most of February."

"Oh yeah," Chanyeol says. "Baekhyun mentioned you were an architecture guy."

"Yes," Kyungsoo says, "I'm an _architecture guy_. I work for an architecture firm, anyway."

"So how do you get this much time off?" Jongdae asks, taking a cup of makgeolli from Soojung. He smiles at her in thanks before turning back to Kyungsoo. "Can you do that?"

"He's here, isn't he?" Baekhyun quips, and Chanyeol laughs as he accepts his own cup from Soojung, who mutters something about being the youngest as she pours three more cups. "Kyungsoo's some kind of boss, anyway."

"I was given leave for personal reasons," Kyungsoo says, quietly, and Jongdae nods. "Since my role with the company is fairly important, they accommodated me."

"So I'm stuck with you, then," Baekhyun says, before Kyungsoo can go inside himself, and Soojung gives Baekhyun a piercing look as she hands him his cup. Baekhyun spins the cup in his hands and ignores it.

"Are you tired of me, Baekhyun?" Kyungsoo asks, pushing his hair out of his eyes and pinning Baekhyun in place with one of those big-eyed stares he saves for when he wants to be especially confusing. "And here I thought we had something special." It's subtle, the way he mocks Baekhyun's words from weeks and weeks ago, but it stirs something in Baekhyun.

"No," Baekhyun blurts out, then he flushes as everyone looks at him. "I mean, you should stay as long as you want."

"It's not like every day isn't getting charged to your credit card," Soojung points out, and Kyungsoo grins at her. "Baekhyun can't possibly be tired of your credit card."

"Still," Kyungsoo says, "I don't want to—"

"I like having you here," Baekhyun says, infusing finality into it. Kyungsoo leans into him, in acknowledgement, maybe. "Now, which movie should we watch?"

Baekhyun ignores the way Jongdae is trying to read his mind or something, and drags the case with all of Jongdae's DVDs toward himself resolutely.

Kyungsoo, it turns out, is something of a film buff. He's seen every movie ever, and has opinions on things like _the cinematography_ and _the authenticity of the director_ , which has Chanyeol leaning forward with interest and Baekhyun staring at him.

Baekhyun shouldn't be surprised that Kyungsoo is opinionated, when it comes down to it. But he is, because even though Kyungsoo might put up token protests, he always ends up following Baekhyun's lead.

Jongdae and Baekhyun do a cheers with Soojung, taking sips of the makgeolli as Kyungsoo rules out movie after movie, Chanyeol right along with him with comments like "this one was so historically inaccurate," and Soojung gives them both her patented _who cares_ look as Baekhyun and Jongdae laugh.

"Maybe Chanyeol has finally found a kindred spirit," Jongdae says, and then he pauses, setting down his cup and pulling out his phone. He holds it up, and takes a picture of Kyungsoo and Chanyeol.

"What are you doing?" Soojung asks, and Jongdae grins at her.

"It's for my mom," Jongdae says. "She keeps telling me Kyungsoo looks like someone, so I figure she'll stop asking me when he's coming by again if she can look at his face whenever she wants."

"Oh, yeah, that's not weird at all," says Baekhyun, and Soojung puts her forehead to Baekhyun's shoulder to hide her laughter as Chanyeol makes a triumphant noise, brandishing a DVD plucked from the plastic sleeve.

"We've come to a consensus," Chanyeol says.

Jongdae pulls the back of Soojung's shirt, pulling her toward him, and she settles back, and Baekhyun slides his gaze away from that as Kyungsoo moves, too, even closer to Baekhyun. Now their hips are touching as well, and Kyungsoo's jeans are brushing his, too lightly to be full contact but enough that it tickles Baekhyun's thigh.

"Consensus implies that this is a movie we all want to watch," says Baekhyun, but he doesn't really care. He's seen every movie Jongdae owns, more than once, anyway.

"What if it's all the people who matter making the decision?" Chanyeol replies, the disc around his thick finger, stuck at the first knuckle.

"Then I'd say you were asking for a reminder of who really is in charge," Soojung says loftily, and Jongdae laughs, turning to her and grinning. She tosses her red hair over her shoulder.

"My mistake," Chanyeol says, and winks at Kyungsoo, too sloppy and obvious to do anything but make the rest of them laugh. Baekhyun turns to look at Kyungsoo. He's glaring, frustrated, at the fall of hair in his face.

"Soojung could probably cut it for you," Baekhyun says, reaching up and pushing it away. His nails lightly scrape Kyungsoo's forehead, and it's Chanyeol's lopsided curious smile out of the corner of his eye that reminds Baekhyun they aren't alone. He quickly drops his hand, and clears his throat. "If you asked her nicely."

"I could do it in the morning," she says, as Chanyeol passes Jongdae the DVD. Jongdae puts it into the player, and hands Baekhyun the control.

"I'd like that," Kyungsoo says. "Thank you." His ears have gone pink again.

"I'm not as good as Taeyeon-eonni is, but I'm pretty good," Soojung says.

"The Kim Taeyeon that Baekhyun likes?" Kyungsoo asks, and Jongdae laughs.

"One and the same," he says, and Chanyeol joins him in laughter. Baekhyun laughs too, but it's forced, catching in his throat part of the time. Kyungsoo leans into him a little more, after Chanyeol has gotten up and turned out the light, and Baekhyun refuses to look at Kyungsoo to see if it's because he'd noticed.

Baekhyun tries to pay attention to the movie, he really does, but as usual, he gets distracted, getting into a debate about the casting for the actress with Soojung for while, and then into a food fight with Jongdae, which is mostly just them smashing Choco Pies into each other's cheeks until Soojung sends them to the bathroom to clean up their faces.

They go into the guest bathroom, because it's closer, and Jongdae blinks at the neat line of products on the open shelves. "It's so…"

"Kyungsoo is like that," Baekhyun says, shrugging. "He likes things organized."

"I'll say," Jongdae says. "Doesn't it get irritating?" He pokes Baekhyun's cheek. "What with you being a mess, and all."

"No," Baekhyun says. "It doesn't." He runs his fingers under the water. "It's not a big deal." He takes his wet thumb and rubs it down Jongdae's cheek, clearing away a line of cream filling. "Don't tease him about it."

"Aw, aren't you an overprotective pet owner," says Jongdae, but there's a look of agreement in his eyes. "Protecting your baby hedgehog."

"You can't tell him about that," Baekhyun says. "You'd never find my body and I'd haunt you, Jongdae, I swear I would."

"It might be kind of fun to hang out with ghost you," Jongdae muses. "I wonder if it would be like putting you on mute and then losing the remote."

They tussle, and when they finally return to the main room, both of them have wet hair and shirts. Baekhyun sits down next to Kyungsoo, who turns to him with wide eyes, reflecting the light of the television screen. "You missed half the movie," Kyungsoo says, "and you're soaked."

"Boys," Soojung says, imbuing it with enough disdain that Jongdae feels the need to pull her hair. "Try that again, Kim Jongdae."

"Everyone's threatening me today," he says, and Soojung tells him that if he doesn't want to be threatened he should stop deserving it.

"We should go out to the movies sometime," says Baekhyun, stretching, after the movie is over. "No one ever wants to, but then I find out later you've all already seen it."

"And why do you think that is?" Chanyeol is smirking.

"Am I supposed to know?"

Chanyeol's resultant laugh is so loud that Kyungsoo jumps, the crackers he'd been munching on with his customary tiny methodical chipmunk chews falling from his hands. Gathering the spilled crackers, Kyungsoo puts them into a tissue, spinning the ends so there's a tiny package of crackers for the garbage.

"It's obvious," Chanyeol says. "No one wants to go to the movies with you, Baekhyunnie."

"It's awful," says Soojung. "Might as well not even waste the money."

Baekhyun frowns. "Kyungsoo would go to the movies with me," he says. "Right?" He looks at Kyungsoo, who is staring back at him, bemused.

"If tonight has taught me anything, I would never pay money to sit through a movie with you, Byun Baekhyun," Kyungsoo replies, and Jongdae coughs, choking on his liquor. "I wouldn't sit through a movie with you if someone _paid me._ "

"He talks the whole time," Jongdae says, and Chanyeol chuckles as Jongdae makes a chatting motion with his hand.

"Puts his feet up on the back of other people's seats, too. And he can't sit still." Chanyeol scratches his jaw, looking, in Baekhyun's opinion, especially caveman. " _And_ he's a snack thief."

"You're just selfish," Baekhyun says to Chanyeol, before looking at Kyungsoo. "What's the point of seeing a movie with someone else if you don't share popcorn and talk about it?"

Kyungsoo gives Baekhyun a long, incredulous glare as Jongdae laughs quietly in the background, smile broad enough to show all of his straight white teeth.

"You talk about it after the movie, Baekhyunnie," says Chanyeol, reaching out, undoubtedly, to tickle Baekhyun's neck. Baekhyun scrambles away, falling into Kyungsoo, who reaches out with one hand to steady him, heel of his palm pressing the small of Baekhyun's back. He can feel the warmth of Kyungsoo's hand through the thickness of his sweatshirt, and Baekhyun suppresses a shiver. "Obviously."

"Obviously," Baekhyun repeats, in an admittedly mediocre impression of Chanyeol's low voice, and Chanyeol rolls his eyes, turning to Jongdae and Soojung and getting into a discussion about that weird article Chanyeol had e-mailed Baekhyun and Jongdae, that they'd all somehow managed to read without falling asleep, about the fertilizer crisis south of Daegu.

Baekhyun listens, kind of, but Kyungsoo's hand has slid from his back to around his waist. It presses them close together, and Kyungsoo's knee digs into his thigh as they sit side by side on the floor.

"What kind of person do you watch movies with, then?" he asks Kyungsoo. He wonders, sometimes, about Kyungsoo's friends back home, all the way up there in Seoul. He wonders what kind of people Kyungsoo spends his time with. If they miss him. Baekhyun will miss him.

Kyungsoo hasn't been here long enough for Baekhyun to feel the possessive jolt that zips down his spine. Kyungsoo probably has friends he's known much longer than Baekhyun has, even if he'd only come back to Korea to go to college.

"I usually watch movies by myself," Kyungsoo says. His breath is hot on Baekhyun's cheek, tickling his ear, and Baekhyun has to pull himself back into his own space as a flash of heat pushes up from his chest to warm his cheeks. Kyungsoo's arm drops easily, as though its position on Baekhyun's waist had been inconsequential. It probably had been. Baekhyun doesn't know. "It's not something you can't do alone."

That's true. Baekhyun pulls his knees up and wraps his arms around them. "Still, I don't really like being alone," he says. "Even at the movies."

"You can get used to it," says Kyungsoo, blinking at Baekhyun with those expressive eyes that don't really tell Baekhyun anything at all. "When I was in Germany, I did it all the time. I'd watch movies I could barely understand." A quiet chuckle that Baekhyun can't figure out. "Being alone isn't so bad, when you get used to it."

"I can't get used to being alone," Baekhyun says. "And I've had a lot of practice."

Their conversation is interrupted by a loud shriek from Jongdae, who has somehow infuriated Soojung again, and it's obvious they all have too much energy to go to sleep. Since everyone is staying over tonight, Baekhyun suggests a walk outside, which will be fine even through the mild alcohol buzz, as long as they stick to the less tricky paths.

They go out for a walk, not too far, just out behind the guesthouse. Soojung is uncharacteristically giggly, but when Chanyeol calls her out on it, she gives him an absolutely characteristic death glare that has Jongdae laughing sweetly, the sound cutting through the air clear as a bell. Baekhyun walks behind them, keeping pace with Kyungsoo, whose earlier pleased mood has faded away into something far more withdrawn.

In the dark, Baekhyun can't study Kyungsoo's face the way he'd like to. He can tell, though, that the gloom that Kyungsoo had pushed out for a while is creeping in again, blown back with the nighttime wind.

On impulse, he reaches out for Kyungsoo's hand. Kyungsoo's fingers are all curled up, but Baekhyun carefully teases his fist open and laces their fingers together. They fit, just like he'd imagined before, back at the restaurant, when he'd measured their hands against each other, pressed palm to palm. Their palms are warm against each other now, and Kyungsoo is staring at him. Baekhyun can feel his gaze, and he doesn't avoid it. Out here, in the dark, Kyungsoo can't see the red tinge that rushing blood has given to his face, or that his lip is swollen from being bitten too hard.

"Seom ogalpi," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo sighs, heavily, as though expelling all the air in his body. Baekhyun can smell the liquor, and knows his own breath is probably the same.

Baekhyun expects Kyungsoo to pull away, but he doesn't. Kyungsoo squeezes back, and Chanyeol and Jongdae's incongruous tones flowing together, combined with Soojung's cutting interruptions, wash over them. For once, Baekhyun doesn't feel the urge to add to that noise.

He looks over at Kyungsoo: at the soft curve of his full lips and at the inky thickness of his hair, and at the intensity of his eyes as he stares out into the distance. He looks at him, and for a moment, he's rather breathless.

Later, when Kyungsoo's gone to sleep in his room, Chanyeol has fallen asleep curled up in the main room, and Soojung has picked a room and shut the door, Jongdae corners Baekhyun in the kitchen.

"I was watching you, outside," Jongdae says, and Baekhyun sighs.

"So?" Baekhyun doesn't know what in particular Jongdae is asking about. Maybe the way he'd hung back with Kyungsoo instead of chasing Chanyeol screaming into the night. He just doesn't know.

"You like him so much," Jongdae says, eventually. He's holding his glass of water casually, but his next question is pointed. "Why?"

"At first," Baekhyun says, "I thought it was because he was like Yixing-hyung." The sadness that both Kyungsoo and Yixing had seemed to wear when they arrived, heavier than the puff coat Baekhyun had lent Kyungsoo to keep him warm. "But now it's…" He smiles, a little helplessly. "Because he's Kyungsoo, you know?" He puts the two empty peach colored plastic bottles of makgeolli into the recycle. "His sense of humor is so different, and he's smart, too. He's…" Baekhyun swallows, "a good listener."

"A good listener," Jongdae echoes, then he grins, feline sneaky. "That _would_ be your most important qualification in a friend."

It breaks the moment, and Baekhyun laughs, throwing an arm around Jongdae's shoulder and pulling him close so he can lean their heads together. "Don't worry," he says. "You're still my best friend."

Jongdae had been one of the first people to talk to Baekhyun when he'd arrived in Jeolbyeog-ri. _"You're Byun Baekhyun, right?"_ Baekhyun had still been in shock, then, trying his best to catch up in a school that was at least a few months ahead of his old one, and trying to make sense out of living at that big old guesthouse with the grandmother he usually only visited once a month. _"I heard your m—"_ He'd stopped, then, and sat down next to Baekhyun on the rock wall outside the old school building, close enough that Baekhyun could feel the warmth radiating off him, but not so close that he felt cornered. _"Well, I heard from my mom you were going to be living with Old Woman Yi up at the guesthouse."_

Baekhyun had looked up at him then. _"Yeah,"_ he'd said, and Jongdae had smiled.

 _"Well, I'm Kim Jongdae. My family owns a pork belly restaurant here in the village. You should come sometime."_ Kim Jongdae's mouth had stretched wide, showing lots of teeth. He seemed so nice, and Baekhyun wanted to smile back. _"And…"_ Kim Jongdae had hesitated, and then he'd dragged his Spiderman backpack onto his lap, pulling out a book from inside. _"My mom gave this to me,"_ he'd said. _"When my dad died."_ He'd given it to Baekhyun, who'd taken it with shaking hands. _"Maybe you don't like to read, so just in case, I'll tell you what's in it. It's about Ieodo."_

 _"Ieodo?"_ Baekhyun had run his hand over the cover. It was painted with men and women in white robes, like the shamans wore.

 _"Ieodo is the lost island where the souls of the fisherman and divers lost at sea go,"_ Jongdae had said. _My mom says it's paradise, but…"_ He'd stopped, then, and he'd moved a little closer to Baekhyun. _"But I was worried my dad would be lonely, there. Maybe now, they can be friends, your mom and my dad. Neither of them will be lonely, that way."_

 _"Yeah,"_ Baekhyun had said, and to his embarrassment, he'd almost started to cry again.

 _"So if my dad and your mom are going to be friends,"_ Jongdae had said, his own voice kind of weird, like maybe he wanted to cry too. Baekhyun had felt awful about that. Baekbeom, in the end, had only cried when he'd seen Baekhyun crying. Maybe something about Baekhyun made people feel bad. _"Then I figure we should be friends too."_

The kitchen floor is cold under Baekhyun's feet. "You're my very best friend, Kim Jongdae, and don't you forget it."

Jongdae snorts, one of his hands slapping Baekhyun's stomach. "You're a big sap," he says, but he's smiling huge and wide, just like back then, when Baekhyun lets go of him.

⚘❁⚘

Soojung cuts Kyungsoo's hair in the morning, Kyungsoo sitting primly in the chair that Baekhyun has dragged outside, his legs crossed above the knee and his hands one atop the other in his lap. His eyes are closed, and Baekhyun and Jongdae watch from the back step, sharing a blanket and eating toast. Chanyeol has already left for work, the rattling of his pickup truck having woken Jongdae up this morning as he'd stumbled into the kitchen hungover.

"More off the sides," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo opens his eyes to study Baekhyun. "That's how he had it, when he came here. More off the sides."

"Paying attention to haircuts now?" Soojung asks, nonetheless moving to trim more hair from the sides. "Next thing I know, you'll be wearing shirts that fit you."

"What's wrong with my shirts?" Baekhyun crams the last bit of his toast into his mouth and then licks for the crumbs, and Kyungsoo quickly closes his eyes. He's probably appalled as usual by Baekhyun's eating habits.

"They're meant for someone approximately nine times your size," Soojung says, and Baekhyun wrinkles his nose at her.

"I just left myself room to grow into them," says Baekhyun, and Jongdae shoves the last of his toast into Baekhyun's mouth instead of eating it himself.

"You're twenty-five," Jongdae says. "It's time to give up on that eventual growth spurt. Plus, you're around the same height as Baekbeom-hyung. Genetics suggest you're exactly the height you're meant to be."

"Wow, way to crush my dreams." Baekhyun stands up and lets the blanket fall on Jongdae's head. "I'm going to put more bread in the toaster oven."

When it's just the two of them left in the guesthouse, Baekhyun expects Kyungsoo to retire back to his room. He doesn't though. Instead, he brings out a giant roll of plans from his room and sets them on a chair, before systematically wiping down the whole table. Then he spreads them out on the table.

"What are you doing?" Baekhyun moves to stand next to Kyungsoo.

"Is it a problem if I work here?"

"Not at all," Baekhyun says. "I was just going to study Chinese today." More like stare at the book and wish he could learn by osmosis, but that hasn't happened for him yet. "Are these new plans?"

"Yes," says Kyungsoo. "I had them sent to me from the Seoul office."

"So this is your March project," Baekhyun continues. He leans closer to the table. "What is it?"

"These are going to be extremely expensive apartments," Kyungsoo says. He looks up from the plans at Baekhyun, and their faces are so close together that Baekhyun's nose brushes Kyungsoo's, so he backs up enough that he can't feel Kyungsoo's breath on his chin.

"I can't make heads or tails of it," Baekhyun admits. "I mean, I can tell these are floor plans, but I couldn't tell you much more than that."

"It's my job to inspect these plans," Kyungsoo says. "To make sure there aren't flaws that could lead to problems with the individual apartments or with the building as a whole."

"Like what?" Baekhyun had missed seeing all of Kyungsoo's face. There's a roundness to it that's belied by the strength of his jaw, and Baekhyun likes the contrasts in his face: in every part of him, really. "Like plumbing?"

"Hmm," Kyungsoo says. "Yes, things like where pipes should go and what size they should be, and electrical wiring plans—" He cuts off. "Well, I look for flaws. Right now, I'm trying to make sure these plans will create as safe a building as possible, at the lowest possible labor and materials cost."

"That's…" Baekhyun sucks his lip into his mouth. "It sounds complicated?" He watches as Kyungsoo presses the curling edges of the plans flat. His hands are unsteady, and Baekhyun thinks it must be a lot of pressure, to know that you're responsible for making sure a building is going to be safe for that many people all at once.

"It is," Kyungsoo says.

"Once, when Jongdae and I were sixteen, Jongdeok and Sooyeon drove us west to the sand beaches, and Jongdae and I built a sandcastle. We planned it out by drawing it first. It was all very scientific." Kyungsoo is listening. Baekhyun can tell because his face has gone blank. "We built it layer by layer until it was as high as my belly button, and then we started carving designs in it. Jongdeok took a bunch of pictures on his phone." Baekhyun laughs. "We'd thought of everything, we thought. We'd built it far enough that high tide wouldn't ruin the foundation, and we'd made it heavy enough that the summer wind wouldn't blow it down. We'd built a wall around it so that kids wouldn't kick it by accident. We had it all planned out."

"Very thorough of you," says Kyungsoo.

"Then a bird came down and basically dive-bombed it," Baekhyun says. "Destroyed the whole top of it." Kyungsoo's eyes are big, and Baekhyun thinks it's counterintuitive how much harder Kyungsoo is to read when he does that. "So I admire you, basically."

"That doesn't make sense," Kyungsoo says. "What do I have to do with your trashed sandcastle?"

"Because it must be hard to think of everything," Baekhyun says. "It's a lot of responsibility, and Jongdae and I couldn't even protect our sandcastle, but you have to do it on a much larger scale." He scratches his stomach. "So I think your job is really important."

He's never seen Kyungsoo shut down as fast he does at Baekhyun's words. "The consequences of being wrong," Kyungsoo says, "are much higher, as well."

"Kyungsoo?"

"I'm too tired to do this," Kyungsoo says, stepping away from his plans. "I'm going to take a nap."

"Do you want lunch first?" Baekhyun asks, trying to figure out where he's mis-stepped.

"No," Kyungsoo says, sparing one last glance at the plans before he exits the room, leaving them on the table.

"Why is Kyungsoo so sad?" Baekhyun asks the empty room, but it doesn't answer, because for all the ghosts he thinks remain here, none of them have ever decided to talk back to him.  



	3. Chapter 3

 

 

 

 

 

⚘❁⚘

Kyungsoo's room is empty. The door is ajar, and he isn't anywhere else in the guesthouse. His car is still here, though, so Baekhyun assumes Kyungsoo's gone out for a walk.

Only Kyungsoo doesn't come back. Not after three hours, and not after four. When it starts to get dark, Baekhyun walks down to the village, popping into his favorite places and asking if anyone's seen Kyungsoo. 

When he stops by Jongdae's mom's restaurant, it's just her and Jongdeok working. "Where's Jongdae?"

"Oh, he's out," she says. "What can I help you with, Baekhyunnie?"

"I can't find Kyungsoo," Baekhyun says. "He didn't take his car, but he's been gone almost six hours, now, and I'm worried about him."

"He hasn't been around here," she says. "I've been open since noon, and he hasn't stopped by." She tilts her head. "Not like I'm going to forget a face like his."

"Did you ever figure out why he looked familiar?" asks Baekhyun, and Jongdae's mom smiles. 

"I did," she says. "It's nothing to worry about." She stacks a few empty dishes on top of each other. "Do you have your phone? I'll let you know if I see him."

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he holds it up. "I do have it. Thank you," Baekhyun says. He stops by most open shops, but no one has seen Kyungsoo at all. Almost everyone in this part of the village knows him by face, and most people, by now, know him by name, too. 

That had shocked Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun had laughed at him. _"Maybe you're not used to it,"_ Baekhyun had told him, _"but that's the way things work around here, city boy. You can't stay a stranger for long if you stick around more than a couple of weeks."_

"You should get a new phone, Baekhyunnie," says Jongdae's mom. "That one's a relic."

"I don't even have service, half the time," says Baekhyun. "What's the point?" It's just a pay as you go phone. Baekhyun doesn't talk to many people on the phone, anyway. He sees most of his friends every day, and it's not like Baekbeom is going to ring him up once a week to check in. The monthly e-mails are much more his style. ( _Baekhyun, do you need anything from Busan? Don't say sneakers._ )

It's not until Baekhyun is walking back up to the guesthouse, in the fading daylight, after a fruitless search, that he realizes that it's Christmas Eve.

Kyungsoo had been so sad, about Christmas. Baekhyun's stomach churns, like he's had bad milk. "Where are you, Do Kyungsoo?"

He checks again for the car, and it hasn't moved from where Kyungsoo had parked it after his trip to the post office. Kyungsoo hadn't told him where he was going then, either. Kyungsoo probably doesn't know how unsafe it is, to wander out alone on the island, where you can easily break a leg on the deceptively uneven hiking paths, especially in the winter, and no one would know where to come look for you. Baekhyun learned that before he knew how to walk, really, but he'd actually learned it when he was thirteen, when Jongdae had gone out alone after a fight with his brother. He'd fallen and hurt his ankle, and it had taken twenty hours and the whole village to find him, since he'd left the paths and wandered out into the grass past the chamomile fields. Jongdae had been so afraid when they'd found him. Young or old, when you're going off like that, it's best if someone knows where you've gone.

Maybe in Seoul, in the city, it's not like that. Baekhyun could see that being the case, but it doesn't make him less worried. It just reminds him that as easily as Kyungsoo has fit into his life here at the guesthouse, made it better, even, he's not from Jeolbyeog-ri, and he doesn't know all the trails like the back of his hand.

Kyungsoo doesn't like to hike. That makes it easier for Baekhyun to walk all the closer trails out from the back of the house, the ones Kyungsoo walked for the first few weeks when he wanted to think. But those are short trails, half an hour walks across flat land, and he'd be back by now. Baekhyun checks anyway, and really, there's no sign Kyungsoo might have walked them at all today.

It starts to snow around eight. Baekhyun tries to distract himself, with a drama on television, but it doesn't work. He stalks into the kitchen and makes himself a hot chocolate, and then he sits down at the table, where he's rolled up Kyungsoo's plans and left them at the end closer to the wall, away from the usual pattern of traffic through the room. 

If he hasn't heard from Kyungsoo by nine, Baekhyun thinks, he'll walk back down toward the village until he gets reception and call Chanyeol. With the two of them, it'll be easier to search the village, and then maybe he can get Minseok, Jongdeok and Jongdae to help search the woods. 

Hopefully, Baekhyun thinks, Kyungsoo's just fine. Lost track of time thinking down by the cliffs or something. Baekhyun would feel better if Kyungsoo had taken his phone, but it's sitting on his desk. It's not even on.

Baekhyun's just finishing his chocolate when the back door opens. Baekhyun gets up from his chair and runs to it, and when he sees Kyungsoo, with wet hair, shivering, with muddy pants and snow clinging to his face and sitting soft in the wrinkles of his borrowed coat, Baekhyun wants to sink to his knees in relief. "Where have you been?" It comes out sharp, and Kyungsoo flinches, before looking up at him with eerily vacant eyes. They're swollen, like he's been crying. "Kyungsoo, where have you been? I looked everywhere in the village for you, and—" 

He remembers his grandmother, looking at him solemnly, a few weeks after Yixing had arrived at the guesthouse. _"Don't leave him alone for too long,"_ she'd told Baekhyun, carefully. There had been so much she hadn't said. _"He doesn't…"_ and she'd hesitated, _"take care of himself, when he's left alone."_

Baekhyun takes a deep breath, and Kyungsoo is still staring at him. His lips are tinged blue. "Have you been outside this whole time? Fuck, Kyungsoo, it's so cold." He grabs Kyungsoo's arm and hauls him up and toward his bathroom, stripping him of his coat and pulling on his clothes. "Get naked," he says, and Kyungsoo is so out of it that he doesn't even protest, pulling his sweatshirt over his head and starting to unbutton his pants. Baekhyun turns on the hot water in the shower. "I'm going to go fill up the tub." Baekhyun grabs Kyungsoo's face with both hands. "I'll be back in three minutes. Get under the hot water, and I'll be right back." 

Baekhyun has never filled the wood tub faster in his life. The room starts to fill with steam, the strong scent of crushed herbs lifting, and as the water level rises, Baekhyun goes back to the bathroom. Kyungsoo is standing under the water, his back to the door. The bumps of his spine are obvious when he has his arms wrapped around him like that, and Baekhyun doesn't waste any more time looking when he notices Kyungsoo's shaking is becoming more exaggerated. 

"What were you even thinking," Baekhyun mutters, and Kyungsoo looks over his shoulder at the sound of Baekhyun's voice. "Come on, then." 

Baekhyun doesn't care that Kyungsoo is leaving messy wet footprints on the hall floor as they walk down to the last room. The steam pours out when Baekhyun opens the door, and Kyungsoo is still letting himself get dragged around. That worries Baekhyun a lot, but he doesn't point it out. He just guides Kyungsoo into the tub, watching as his pale skin burns red at the first touch of the fiercely hot water. Baekhyun lets go of Kyungsoo once he's sat down, and plans to go get towels, but Kyungsoo grabs a handful of his shirt, stopping him from moving away. He doesn't say anything, but Baekhyun reads what he wants in his eyes. 

He gets into the tub with him, still wearing his clothes, and he sits next to Kyungsoo instead of across from him. Like this, it's a tight squeeze, because the tub isn't wide enough for two men to sit shoulder to shoulder, and Baekhyun's clothes, sopping and sticky, cling to Kyungsoo's bare skin. 

"What were you thinking?" Baekhyun's voice is gentler this time, but Kyungsoo still recoils, only Baekhyun's arm around him preventing him from banging into the wooden side of the tub. Water sloshes out onto the floor, though, and the scent of seom ogalpi rises.

"I wasn't," Kyungsoo says. "I just wanted… I needed to take a walk."

"For six hours?" The mud on Kyungsoo's pants and the snow in his hair. The chill that seems to sink all the way down into him. He'd hiked up to the _shrine_ , Baekhyun thinks, past the potter's house and up through the trees. In this weather. "You went to the halmang-dang?" Kyungsoo's skin is slick and even smoother when it's wet, and Baekhyun pulls him in even closer to his side, snaking his arm behind Kyungsoo's back, until Kyungsoo buries his face in Baekhyun's neck. Kyungsoo is still shivering. Unconsciously, Baekhyun slides his hand up and down, in a soothing motion, like he'd do for Jongdae. "You don't even like to hike."

"Yes," Kyungsoo says. His lips brush Baekhyun's collarbone, and Baekhyun's hand tightens on Kyungsoo's arm. He can hear the _I can't talk about it_ in Kyungsoo's tone. 

Baekhyun had spent hours up at the shrine, after his grandmother had died, wishing that the pressure in his chest would ease up.

"You should take me with you next time," Baekhyun says, softly. "You could have gotten lost."

"I'm not a child," says Kyungsoo. "You might still let yourself be treated like one, but I can't do that." The words are harsh, but Kyungsoo's hand clenches a fistful of Baekhyun's soggy shirt, not letting him go. It's like he's too tired to do the hedgehog thing, and has settled for sharp words even as he takes comfort from Baekhyun's embrace. 

"People die, like that," Baekhyun says. "In a hurry to be one of those screaming trees?"

"People die in all sorts of ways," Kyungsoo says, dropping his hand and sitting up. Baekhyun hadn't thought it possible to feel cold in a tub of steaming hot water, but without Kyungsoo's mouth at his neck, he finds it is.

"At least take your phone next time." He keeps his voice light, and it helps. Kyungsoo's shivering has finally stopped, the chattering of his teeth quieted. Baekhyun's hip is digging into the back wall of the tub, so he shifts his hips. Wet denim drags against his thighs, and probably Kyungsoo's too. It's super uncomfortable, but he can't do anything about it at the moment. "Never know when you might get service out there." 

Kyungsoo pulls further away from Baekhyun, then, and closes his eyes. Baekhyun moves, until his back is against the opposite wall, mimicking the way they sat the last time they were in the tub. The steam is rising again, but Baekhyun can see Kyungsoo's face like this.

"I was…" Kyungsoo says, and that scary, empty look is gone from his eyes, at least partially. Life has returned along with the coloring in his face. "I left my phone because I knew they'd call tonight." 

"Who?" Baekhyun asks.

"Friends," says Kyungsoo. "My mother and my brother. They worry about me."

"Does it bother you, that people worry about you?" Kyungsoo pulls his legs up, scraping his calf along Baekhyun's jeans. The steam is rising again. 

"No," Kyungsoo says. "It bothers me to think about the reason they're worried."

It's on the tip of Baekhyun's tongue, to ask. To ask why Kyungsoo had come here, what he's running from in Seoul that had driven him all the way out to a small village dying out on the southern coast of Jeju.

But across from him, Kyungsoo is only just beginning to sound like himself again, and it makes him think of how Kyungsoo had looked at him, when he walked in the back door tonight. "Would you like some hot chocolate?" Baekhyun asks, and Kyungsoo produces a weird noise, in the back of his throat, a strangled sound.

"You're not going to—" Kyungsoo stops, mid-sentence.

Baekhyun stands up, making a mess and splashing water everywhere as he climbs out of the tub. His clothes are going to take days and days to dry, he thinks, and are going to smell like ogalpi until he next does laundry. "I'm thinking about instituting a no coffee after ten at night rule," says Baekhyun. Outside the water, it's too cold. "What do you think?"

"I'll let you get away with it tonight," Kyungsoo says. "Just tonight."

"Hot chocolate it is," Baekhyun says, wrapping himself up in a towel.

Kyungsoo comes into the kitchen twenty minutes later, dressed all in black with his hair combed neatly. The hood of his sweatshirt is crooked, the strings pulled too far. He organizes the tins and jars on the counter as Baekhyun mixes his hot chocolate carefully, to get out the lumps. 

"Delicious?" he asks, when Kyungsoo takes a sip of the chocolate and closes his eyes. His hands are completely steady, but he looks like Kyungsoo again, instead of the wild-eyed man Baekhyun had herded under the showerhead. "It's actually really hard to find the good kind. My brother sends it to me from Busan." One of the few ways Baekbeom still communicates. Baekhyun shouldn't be so bitter. Baekbeom has never really been great with people, not even Baekhyun. "I think he gets it from an import store down there: I get big packages of it in the mail along with letters that say things like ‘This was expensive' or ‘I hope you don't mind dehydrated marshmallows'. I can't stand coffee, and tea makes me think of medicine. So I drink this stuff."

Kyungsoo opens his eyes again, fixing Baekhyun with an intense stare. Baekhyun feels like a bug under glass, but also like Kyungsoo is taking his measure. Kyungsoo's mouth goes from slightly pinched to soft, and then he takes another sip. "It is delicious."

"Are you…" Baekhyun rips the top off his chocolate powder, and pours it messily into the mug before sloshing in hot water. Kyungsoo watches him, and then looks from Baekhyun's mug to his own, where Baekhyun had taken time and care to mix it. "Are you feeling better?"

Kyungsoo drops his gaze. "I am," he says, somewhat incredulously, and Baekhyun can't help himself. He leaves his chocolate on the countertop and reaches around Kyungsoo's neck on both sides, pulling on the material to move it along the strings. When he's patted the hood down, he realizes he's disturbed the neat combing of Kyungsoo's hair, so he fingers the hair on the back of Kyungsoo's neck to fix it, because Kyungsoo would hate it, if he could see it.

"Of course you do," Baekhyun says. "Didn't I tell you seom ogalpi was magic?" He pulls away.

Kyungsoo ears are delightfully red. Baekhyun can feel the anxiousness of the day unwinding from his limbs, retreating vines of choking ivy. 

Kyungsoo's hands are steadier. His fingertips are still prunes, from the water. He lets go of the mug with one hand and reaches up to cup his neck, where Baekhyun had touched.

"I'm not sure the magic comes from seom ogalpi at all," he says, looking down, and Baekhyun picks up his chocolate to take a drink.

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun opens the refrigerator the next morning and curses. He's out of the kimchi that Jongdae's mom had sent him.

Since he's fairly sure that Kyungsoo is still asleep, Baekhyun figures he has enough time to run down to Jongdae's house to pick up more. Jongdae's mother always has a package ready for him. She's full of small kindnesses like that, so much like Jongdae. 

The walk to the village is much easier this morning than it had been yesterday, mostly because Baekhyun isn't trying to track down his wayward guest.

He gets to Jongdae's house and opens the door. No one really locks up around here, and Baekhyun's been welcome in this house for so long he never thinks to knock.

Only maybe he should have, because in the main room, instead of Jongdae's mom, who spends early mornings like this shucking seafood from the wet market for breakfast, he finds Jongdae and Soojung preparing to leave. 

They're both dressed nicely. Jongdae is wearing a pair of fitted jeans and a sweater. He's got his coat halfway on, hanging from his elbows. Soojung is wearing thin, pretty, useless socks, the kind she wears with heels.

Jongdae has a hand in Soojung's hair, and she has both hands on his chest. She's laughing, and looking up at Jongdae with this odd… gentleness that Baekhyun doesn't really associate with Soojung at all. Jongdae's kissing her, on the cheek but just barely, at the corner of her mouth. 

"Since when has this been going on?" Baekhyun asks, his voice coming out all wrong. He doesn't mean to sound so angry, but maybe it's too hard to hide, or maybe anger and betrayal sound the same in Baekhyun's voice: rough and raspy and too loud.

"Baekhyun," Jongdae says, looking up quickly. "What are you doing here?" 

Soojung drops her hands, and Jongdae pulls his coat up until it's all the way on. They're exchanging this look, and Baekhyun can't decipher it, but he can guess at what it means. 

When Jongdae looks back at him, there's panic, too, the same look on Jongdae's face as the time he'd filled their middle school second year teacher's water thermos with tadpoles and expected their teacher to scream, but instead had watched the man drink them without noticing until the second to last sip.

Baekhyun knows most of Jongdae's faces, but not the one he'd been wearing at the same time his lips had been at the edge of Soojung's mouth.

"Sorry," Baekhyun says, "I didn't mean to interrupt your _date_." He jams his hands in his coat pockets and takes a step backward, back toward the door. 

"Baekhyunnie-oppa, it's…" Soojung's long red hair is so vibrant against the white of her coat. Baekhyun hasn't seen that coat before. She must be headed back to the city today, and taking Jongdae with her. Jongdae, who'd kissed her only because he hadn't know Baekhyun was here.

"It's not what it looks like?" Baekhyun asks. "Is that what you're going to say?"

He wishes he were more surprised. 

"It is," Jongdae says. His hand slips into Soojung's, their fingers twining together, and it's _Christmas_ , Baekhyun thinks - a day of lovers. "Soojung and I have been dating for a while now."

"It's funny," Baekhyun says, woodenly, "because that feels like the sort of thing you'd tell your friend." His head is a bit fuzzy, and his stomach is revolting, acid churning and sloshing around. "But I guess that basic courtesy was too much to ask for."

He leaves then, ignoring Jongdae's shout behind him. He hadn't gotten to ask for kimchi, he thinks, numbly, as he walks back up toward the guesthouse. He hadn't even seen Jongdae's mother. She'd have laughed, if Baekhyun had wished her a merry Christmas and kissed her cheek. 

Kissed her cheek differently than Jongdae had kissed Soojung's.

Neither Jongdae or Soojung try to follow him. Baekhyun guesses they really don't care, then, that he's angry. Why should they, really? They have each other, and Baekhyun has…

Baekhyun has the guesthouse. The guesthouse and the shrine and e-mails from Yixing and all the whispers of the camphor trees.

Kyungsoo is in the kitchen when Baekhyun gets back, drinking coffee and reading something on his computer. Suddenly, the guesthouse feels so small.

"You want to go on a trip?" Baekhyun asks, before he can think it through. 

"I am on a trip," Kyungsoo says, looking up from his laptop. His eyebrows are drawn together, and he's tense again. "Remember?"

"We could explore 1132," Baekhyun says. "The Coastal Road. Take it around the whole edge of the island." The more he thinks about it, the more he likes it. "Two to three days to show you a lot of the major tourist spots. It's a beautiful drive, even in the winter." He can borrow Minseok's car, he's sure, if Kyungsoo doesn't want to drive. Minseok wouldn't even ask what it was for, just hand Baekhyun the keys and tell him to bring it and himself back in one piece. "What do you think?"

"Why now?" Kyungsoo asks. He's interested, though, Baekhyun can tell now. He's learned the way Kyungsoo listens more carefully when he wants to know something, the way his fingers still over the keys of his laptop and his head tilts ever so slightly to the left. 

"Because it's Christmas," Baekhyun says, "and I thought you could use the distraction." He thinks of Jongdae and Soojung's hands twined together, two strands of rope into one thicker line. "And honestly, right now, I could use one too."

Kyungsoo's gaze sharpens, and Baekhyun wonders what things Kyungsoo is seeing, when he does that. When he looks at Baekhyun like that. "I'm driving," he says.

"Fine by me," Baekhyun says. "Grab a backpack and three changes of clothes, and let's go."

⚘❁⚘

"You ready?" Kyungsoo asks. It's barely ten in the morning, and it hadn't taken Baekhyun long at all to pack his backpack and lock up the entire guesthouse. He rarely uses the keys for the front door and the side buildings. He'd locked his netbook up in the cabinet in the front hall, too, as Kyungsoo leaned against the wall, arms crossed, watching him with this heavy, searching look.

And by the time his bag is in the backseat of Kyungsoo's expensive as fuck car, and his coat is unzipped as he messes around with the seat warmers, Baekhyun has forcibly pushed Jongdae and Soojung to the back of his mind, along with everything else. 

Kyungsoo looks noticeably less tense. Maybe he likes to drive. Baekhyun wouldn't be surprised if Kyungsoo were exactly the sort of person who never let anyone else drive. As Kyungsoo types their first destination into the GPS, Baekhyun notices again the way his hair doesn't seem to hold any light. "So we can go?"

"Well…" Baekhyun says, making sure to drag it out, and Kyungsoo taps his hand on the edge of the steering wheel.

"What is it?" he asks, and Baekhyun looks at him with an obviously false solemnity. 

"There's no way we can go anywhere like this," Baekhyun says. 

Kyungsoo gives him a withering look. "Are you afraid of cars, or something?" He stills his hand, but his thumb still taps impatiently.

Baekhyun sits up straighter in his seat. "Of course not," he says. "This is reckless, though."

"I haven't even started driving," says Kyungsoo, squinting at Baekhyun dangerously. "You don't know if I drive recklessly or not." Baekhyun does his best not to laugh, giving Kyungsoo his best shot at an earnest look. "Put on your seatbelt."

"I refuse to go anywhere without a helmet," says Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo stares at him for a moment before slapping Baekhyun's thigh so hard with his closer hand that it stings, and Baekhyun bursts into laughter. 

"You're an asshole," says Kyungsoo. "I hope your head cracks open like an egg one day."

"You'd miss me terribly," replies Baekhyun, still laughing. He clicks his seatbelt into place when he's done, as Kyungsoo checks his mirrors. It's like a tiny balloon filled with relief has popped inside his chest. "I'm ready to go, Kyungsoo."

Kyungsoo turns the key in the ignition. The car purrs to life. Baekhyun feels like he's in an action movie or something. Putting his hand on the gearshift, Kyungsoo hesitates before he slides the car into drive. "If you're upset, you don't have to pretend not to be, for me."

"I'm not," replies Baekhyun, turning to look out the window.

"You were upset earlier."

"Yeah, I was. But I don't have to worry about it for three days."

"If you say so," Kyungsoo says. He turns on the radio. It's playing nothing but static. "You can choose the music."

They pull out onto 1132, and they begin. Baekhyun plugs his mp3 player in and plays it through the car speakers, a weird mix of pop music and American alt rock. Kyungsoo doesn't seem to mind it. He sings along to a few of the songs. The road is mostly empty, but he watches it carefully anyway, slowing down before passing buses. The GPS occasionally beeps at them, telling them to continue straight.

"This is eclectic."

Baekhyun had made this playlist for Chanyeol, the last time he went on a drive like this.

"I haven't done this in a few years," Baekhyun says, talking over the music. "Driving a long way. This was the music we listened to when Jongdae, Chanyeol and I drove up to Jeju-si."

"You're the pop, so Chanyeol must be the other stuff."

"Nirvana," Baekhyun says. "He plays this stuff on the guitar, too. Soojung always corrects his English."

"You guys have all been friends for so long." Kyungsoo's looking straight ahead. Baekhyun hopes that means he didn't see Baekhyun flinch. 

"Well, Chanyeol's more recent," Baekhyun says. "He only moved out here a few years ago, for the ponies."

"But you and Jongdae and Soojung," says Kyungsoo. "You've been friends for most of your lives, right?"

"Yeah. Feels like forever. Especially me and Jongdae." Baekhyun can remember every birthday they've celebrated, and every prank they've played. He can remember so much, about their lives, and about all the secrets and stories they've shared.

That's probably the part that hurts the most, about what happened this morning. Jongdae had kept it a secret from Baekhyun, and Baekhyun should have known about this one.

"Jongdae and Soojung are dating," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo quickly darts his gaze to look at Baekhyun before he focuses forward again.

"You already knew that, though," Kyungsoo says, after a pause. "Right?"

It had been hard to miss, that something had changed.

"I suspected," Baekhyun admits. "But since they didn't say anything, I assumed I was reading it wrong, or maybe that it hadn't happened yet." He leans his head back against the headrest. "But I walked in on them this morning, all lovey-dovey. I just wanted kimchi."

"Did you fight?" Kyungsoo toggles something to the right of the steering wheel, and the music volume lowers. Baekhyun can hear himself think now, and he wishes he couldn't.

"Fighting implies I waited around to listen to them try to make excuses for lying to me," replies Baekhyun. "I didn't. Jongdae didn't even--" If they'd tried hard, Baekhyun probably _would_ have listened. But they didn't. They'd just… let him go.

"You're more mad at Jongdae than Soojung." Kyungsoo doesn't ask, more states, and Baekhyun turns to stare out the window, at the beautiful coastline they're passing by as Kyungsoo drives down the sparsely populated Coastal Road. 

"Soojung…" Baekhyun presses the temperature on his seat warmer down a point. "Soojung has always had her secrets, and that's okay. And she has Jinri. I think she and Jinri tell each other everything. That's what Chanyeol says, anyway. But Jongdae and I… we tell each other everything. The embarrassing stuff, and the happy stuff, and the terrible stuff, too, the stuff that we'd never tell anyone else about." He bites down on his lower lip. "That's… that's what best friends do."

"Is it?" Kyungsoo muses, then the GPS indicates that they need to get off the road. He turns, and Baekhyun slumps into his seat as much as the seatbelt will allow. "He might have had a good reason." Kyungsoo says it offhandedly, but his hands are gripping the wheel. "Sometimes people don't say things because they think they're better left unsaid. Easier."

"I'd rather know," says Baekhyun. "I'd rather know even if I don't like it." When Kyungsoo pulls into the parking lot, in front of the large blue sign pointing out to the waterfall, Baekhyun unfastens his seatbelt before Kyungsoo even turns off the car. "I… don't even care that they're together, whatever that means, you know? I just care that they…"

"Didn't tell you," Kyungsoo says. 

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "That." It's more than that, but Baekhyun can't figure out how to put it into words for Kyungsoo. Loneliness is such a big feeling. It's so much bigger than the one word he's allotted to express it. 

Everyone's always leaving Baekhyun behind, in so many different ways.

Kyungsoo looks at him for a minute, and he reaches over and rests his hand on Baekhyun's thigh. He doesn't say anything, but he doesn't need to. He just lets his hand sit there, for a moment, warm and comforting, and then he's gone, climbing out of the car, and Baekhyun is scrambling to follow.

Baekhyun opens the back door and pulls knit caps out of his backpack before shutting it. He runs around the car, zipping his jacket, and Kyungsoo follows suit. When he holds the hat up, Kyungsoo sighs, but makes no move to take it from him. 

"You're going to let me put the hat on you?" Baekhyun asks, and Kyungsoo shrugs.

"I don't mind it," he says, and looks away, almost like he's embarrassed. "I guess I've gotten used to you." Baekhyun laughs at him, pulling the hat on messily. With Kyungsoo's hair shorter, Baekhyun misses the pieces that had tickled Kyungsoo's cheeks for a while, long past the folded edge of the knit cap. Baekhyun uses both thumbs to smooth Kyungsoo's eyebrows when he's finished adjusting the hat.

"We've come a long way from finger breaking threats," says Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo gives him a glare, telling him not to push his luck, which only makes Baekhyun laugh again. "You're so cute, my Kyungsoo."

"I'm going to push you into the waterfall," Kyungsoo says, as Baekhyun adjusts his own hat, not bothering to pull it down over his ears.

There's a pathway out to the waterfall. There aren't many people around, thanks to the strong wind and cold temperature, but there's still plenty of foliage along the side of the path leading to Cheonjiyeon. The chasteberries are tall, and Kyungsoo stops to look. "They get this big?"

"Bigger," Baekhyun says. "They do best out in the wilderness, with no one to restrict how far the seeds spread."

"They look different in the kitchen."

"Everything feels a little bit smaller, there. Must be the imaginary fence."

"I think everything there feels a little bit clearer." Kyungsoo smiles at Baekhyun. "I thought you were going to show me a waterfall."

They cross an old raft to the next part of the path. As they walk down the landscaped trail, through a garden with all kinds of rare flowers, many of them dormant for the winter, Kyungsoo walks closer to Baekhyun. "My brother and I came here with Jongdae and Jongdeok once," Baekhyun says. "It was right after Jongdeok got his license." He laughs. "It was all couples."

"There are no couples right now," Kyungsoo says. "Just us."

"Just us," Baekhyun agrees. "Although that might change if the day gets warmer."

Beneath the concrete bridge they cross, koi fish swim just under the surface of the water, flickers of orange and cream in the gray-green pond.

"Pretty," Kyungsoo says. He squats down, and Baekhyun stops to wait for him. He holds his fingers out, and a few of the carp pop out of the water and mouth at his fingers. 

"There are eels in the water as well," Baekhyun says. "So you might not want to get any closer than that."

They cross another bridge, this one high with wooden railings, and there are more people here, with expensive cameras around their necks. 

The actual waterfall is the smallest of the three on the island, but Baekhyun has always thought it was pretty. In the overcast lighting, you can see the patterns in the basalt, shimmering metallic lines in the thick stone.

Kyungsoo takes out his phone from his coat pocket and takes a picture of the waterfall. "For my brother," he says, when Baekhyun looks over his shoulder. "He's always wanted to come to Jeju. We never really lived in Korea long enough before he went into the military. Then I was in the military, too."

"So you've only worked for your company for one year?"

"Starting my second," Kyungsoo says. "And I interned there during college, as well." He turns his phone toward Baekhyun, now, and the phone makes the capture sound as Baekhyun gives Kyungsoo a triumphant ‘V'.

Baekhyun takes the phone from Kyungsoo. The camera is easy to use, the big button at the bottom of the touchscreen allowing him to take a photo of Kyungsoo in front of the landmark. "Let's take one together," Baekhyun says. He throws one arm around Kyungsoo's neck, pulling him in close, until their cheeks touch, and Kyungsoo squeaks. With his other hand, he goes to hold the phone out, but Kyungsoo stops him, catching his jacket.

"You can switch it," he says, and presses a few things on the screen that make their faces appear instead of the scenery. "How old is your phone, if it doesn't have a reverse camera?"

"2007," Baekhyun says. "It still works, too." He holds out his arm again, and then finds their faces. It's off-center, and Baekhyun grumbles. Kyungsoo laughs at him, and the moment that Kyungsoo's eyes crinkle up, Baekhyun takes the picture.

"You made me laugh," Kyungsoo says. "We'll have to take it again."

"You have the best smile," Baekhyun says, as Kyungsoo lifts Baekhyun's arm off his shoulder and worms out from under it. "Can you e-mail this to me?"

Kyungsoo takes the phone from Baekhyun and looks down at the photo. He stares at it, and then licks his lips. "Sure," he says. "Just give me your e-mail address later."

They leave the waterfall, and Kyungsoo insists on driving to the next parking lot over, only about a four-minute drive, instead of walking. "You even hate baby hikes," Baekhyun teases, and Kyungsoo frowns.

"If we walk everywhere, we have to walk back to the car," he says. "Then you're not even looking forward to something."

"That's so morbid," Baekhyun says. "Who knows what you'd see on that return trip." He puts his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

They walk across the Saeyeongyo bridge to Saseom island. Kyungsoo makes them stop at the top of the stairs up to the bridge so he can take a photo of the way the steps spiral down beneath them, coated in fresh white paint.

"This was built really recently," Baekhyun says. "Maybe 2008 or 2009? It was to make the island more accessible." He laughs. "The island's famous for its birds. It was on the radio, back when construction started. My grandmother used to listen to the radio pretty religiously, and I remember that day clearly because Jinri said _"they should just wall it off"_ when she heard they were building the bridge." He smiles at Kyungsoo's perplexed expression. "Jinri's afraid of birds. She'll love the wildest of the horses, but one bird and she's screaming and running into the hills." 

The clouds start to drift on as they walk, letting bits of sunlight peek through. The wood of the bridge starkly contrasts with the bright white of the railing, now that there's more light.

"When this place was first built," Baekhyun says, "Jongdae insisted that they replaced the boats that used to ferry people over with a bridge that looked like a boat."

"There are lots of small islands like this, aren't there?"

"I'm from one," Baekhyun says. "I'm from originally from Gapa island. That's where my dad's family lives. And my dad, too, I guess."

"It's close to the island like this?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun shakes his head.

"Not this close. It's a twenty minute boat ride in good weather." In bad weather, it's an impossible one. Baekhyun still remembers.

"So your mother kept being a diver after she married your father?"

"My dad's a fisherman," says Baekhyun. "My mom was a diver. They both had fairly dangerous careers." He fiddles with his coat zipper, pulling it up and down and letting the repetitive zipping motion distract him. "My mom used to turn her shoes backwards every morning at the door. It's what haenyeo do, because they aren't sure if they'll come back or not. When she got home, she'd turn them the right way, and I'd go and make sure they were next to mine." Kyungsoo is listening intently, when Baekhyun turns to look at him. "What?"

"You always talk a lot," Kyungsoo says, "but when you talk about yourself like that, I want to listen." 

"I'm not nearly as interesting as you are," Baekhyun says, purposely bumping Kyungsoo with his shoulder. 

"But you are," Kyungsoo says. "I…" He trails off, and curls up, just like that, and Baekhyun's kinda flabbergasted by it. He's sure he didn't say anything this time. Maybe Kyungsoo's own thoughts had veered off in a direction he didn't like. 

It's okay, though. Baekhyun can be patient. Hedgehogs always forget they're safe with you, and you have to win them over again and again. Baekhyun's good at that. 

They don't walk the island. Kyungsoo claims he can see enough of it from the bridge, and Baekhyun is so pleased to see Kyungsoo smiling that he agrees.

As he and Kyungsoo return to the car, Baekhyun's problems in Jeolbyeog-ri, the ones that will be waiting for him as surely as the guesthouse is, seem so far away. He wonders if it's the same for Kyungsoo.

The last place they go for the day is Oedalgae Rock. This parking lot already has three buses parked in it, despite the weather. One of them is about to leave, people filing on quickly, reviewing photos on the cameras and unzipping coats as they climb the steps onto the bus. 

"There are some _beautiful_ hiking trails leading to and from here," Baekhyun says, as they walk up the wooden path toward the landmark. "They're down on the coastline, though." He points down, to where tourists and hikers alike walk along the wide Olle path.

"There are so many people here to see this place." Kyungsoo uses one finger to scratch at his hairline. 

"It was a filming location for Daejanggeum," says Baekhyun. "You know, the drama."

When they get up to the railing, they're treated to a pretty expansive view of the stone jutting up out of the ocean like a pillar, pine trees growing unexpectedly from the top, but Baekhyun knows they can do better. He steps up onto the first rung of the fence and then swings a leg over, coming down onto the cliffs on the other side of the fence. 

"What are you doing?" 

"Getting a better view," Baekhyun says. "Are you coming?"

"The fence is here for a reason," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun wrinkles his nose, gesturing to the other people who have already come over the fence to get better photos. 

"Live a little," Baekhyun says, and grins at Kyungsoo, who sighs, and copies Baekhyun's previous actions. His legs aren't as long, and Baekhyun steadies him quickly with one hand at Kyungsoo's shoulder and one at his hip, letting go as soon as Kyungsoo has regained his balance. "Look, you're still alive."

"Shut up," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun laughs, dragging him out along the cliffs past a selca-ing couple and two teenagers sitting on the cliff just staring out at the water. 

The ocean, today, is frothy, waves licking and curling toward the coast. Oedalgae stands tall and alone, and the strong wind has the pines leaning toward them. 

"There was once a sailor," Baekhyun says, "who went out to sea and never came back. His wife waded out into the water, further and further, waiting for him to come back. As she waited, she slowly turned to stone out in the ocean."

"And became Oedolgae," Kyungsoo says. "Loneliness Rock."

"Yeah," says Baekhyun, wind stinging his cheeks. Kyungsoo has his eyes narrowed as he looks out at the ocean, and his cheeks are pink from the cold. "She's still waiting." 

"Is that romantic?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun shakes his head.

"I never thought of it as romantic," Baekhyun answers. "I always thought of it as another example of how resilient the people of Jejudo are." He shrugs. "After all, isn't that what we're famous for?"

"I thought that was wind, rocks, and women?" Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun laughs at him. 

"That too, naturally." 

Kyungsoo looks back at the stone. "It's beautiful, anyway," he says. "The way it stands so proudly against the sky."

Kyungsoo takes a picture on his phone, and then they walk back to the railing. Baekhyun climbs it first, and then gives Kyungsoo a hand over. 

Down by the coastline, they follow the swell of the crowd toward the caves where local islanders hid during the war. The caves have been partially roped off for the winter months, but Kyungsoo doesn't seem to want pictures, anyway. 

"You were right," he tells Baekhyun. "Not a single bear."

"Plenty of crabs, though," replies Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo laughs. His eyebrows always slant down on the outer edges, when he laughs. It's an odd expression, like Kyungsoo can't believe he's laughing at all. Baekhyun likes the shape of Kyungsoo's eyes, too, when he laughs, the waterline curving up in the center until his eyes have the same slope as the hills.

They get dinner at a small local restaurant in Changcheon-ri, a fishing village a stone's throw away from Seogwipeo-si, ordering abalone porridge because Baekhyun insists. "It's a delicacy," he says. "It's either this or the seafood mix ramen," and Kyungsoo humors him.

They eat at the table near the window, watching the sun set on the harbor. 

They're close enough to Jeolbyeog-ri that they can drive back, but neither of them really want to. Kyungsoo doesn't complain when Baekhyun snags his phone and looks up local guesthouses in the area while he finishes eating, finding a few online and then using his own phone to call and see if there are available rooms. 

They check into a Changcheon-ri guesthouse by the sea. The walkway up to the front door is a pretty cobblestone, lit by small yard lights. There are stacked yellow baskets, maybe for sorting fishing catch, stacked up by the front deck. It's nothing like Baekhyun's guesthouse at all, with its hotel style rooms and Western made beds, wooden backboards, fluffy pillows, and expensive floor heating. A European couple is checking in at the same time as them, and the room across from them is occupied by three Chinese men, whom Baekhyun learns are here in Korea with student visas, studying in Seoul. Baekhyun tries out a few phrases in Chinese, and while they laugh, they gently correct him, fixing his tones until he says _"my name is Baekhyun, and how are you doing?"_ in a perfect Beijing accent.

Downstairs, two musicians from Gwangju are playing on their guitars. "Yixing plays the guitar," Baekhyun says, as he and Kyungsoo drop their bags in the room. Because they hadn't booked ahead, there was only a single double bed room left if they didn't want to sleep in a dorm. Baekhyun had laughingly told the owner that sharing a bed was no big deal at all when Kyungsoo had remained silent on the issue.

There's a gorgeous view from the back of the room, where over half the wall is a glass window with pulled up white blinds, and after a quick shower, Baekhyun finds himself wandering out into the yard he'd noticed all the way from the door of the room. There are hammock hooks, but the hammock has been taken down for the winter. From the edge of the yard, Baekhyun can see down to the houses below, and out to the harbor.

He sits down in the grass. The ground is cold, but not cold enough to deter him. He zips his coat, though, when the wind blows from the ocean. Baekhyun breathes in, and smells salt. He can also smell snow in the air. Maybe tonight, he thinks, while they sleep, there will be a storm.

"The bed is heated," says Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun turns his torso around. "So why do you look like you're about to sleep in the grass?"

"I'm not," Baekhyun says. His hair is still wet, tucked under the hood of his sweatshirt, and a particularly vicious gust of wind sends a chill through him. "Just appreciating this view."

He doesn't expect Kyungsoo to sit down beside him and hand him a new bottle of Mt. Halla soju. "The owner gave it to me."

They crack it open, drinking straight out of the bottle. Kyungsoo, when he takes his first sip, leans his head back, and the motion of his throat when he swallows holds Baekhyun's attention. Kyungsoo licks his lips again after his sip, tongue darting out to capture the liquid at the corners, and his fingers brush Baekhyun's as he hands over the bottle.

Taking his own first sip, Baekhyun notices that the mouth of the bottle is warm from Kyungsoo's lips.

As they drink, Baekhyun talks about nothing, and Kyungsoo pretends not to listen. Baekhyun falls back into the grass as the soju gives him a rush. He stares up at the sky instead of at Kyungsoo, because looking at Kyungsoo, with his serious eyes and full mouth, makes him feel strange right now. He'd thought Kyungsoo would become less fascinating over time, but Baekhyun can't help but want to know all of his expressions, and all of the ways his voice rises and falls when he's speaking. 

"Yixing would love this place," Baekhyun says, when the musicians on the first floor start playing again. Someone else has joined them, playing one of the _buk_ drums Baekhyun had seen lined up along the wall in the kitchen.

"You talk about him a lot." Kyungsoo's face has already taken on a fierce flush, when Baekhyun returns his gaze to him. The soju is hitting him faster, probably, because of all the walking they'd done today. Kyungsoo lies back with him in the grass, close enough for Baekhyun to touch, if he wanted to.

"He lived with me and my grandmother for a long time," says Baekhyun. "He's a part of my family, now."

"Does he ever come visit?"

"It's expensive," says Baekhyun. "And I think…" He hiccups. "I think maybe that even though Yixing has a lot of happy memories in Jeju, he left his ghosts here. I don't think he really wants to come back for them." He takes another sip from the bottle, and realizes it's almost empty. "He said he might come this spring, though. That would be nice. We can watch the start of baseball season on TV."

"The alcohol's gone," Kyungsoo says, shaking the bottle. "My tolerance is usually better."

"Mine isn't," Baekhyun says, stretching his arms up over his head. "But you already knew that."

"One shot wonder," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun goes back to the way Soojung had woven her hands into Jongdae's hair, that night at the guesthouse.

"You'd think I'd have had enough practice that I wouldn't go red after the first sip," says Baekhyun, lolling his head to the side. Kyungsoo is in profile, eyes up at the sky. The lights from the harbor and from the guesthouse behind make his skin look like it's glowing. It's hard for Baekhyun to look away. "With all the drinking Jongdae and I have gotten up to since we were old enough to do it."

"In Seoul," Kyungsoo says, "I drink with my co-workers in noisy bars and jazz clubs."

"What's it like, living there?" Baekhyun can feel his words coming out tangled together.

"You can't see the stars in Seoul. There's too much light from the city."

"What do you need the stars for when you've got all those neon lights?"

"I don't know," Kyungsoo says. He sighs. "They remind me of how big the universe is? That there are things so much bigger than me." Baekhyun starts to speak, and Kyungsoo cuts him off with: "If you make a height joke, so help me God, Baekhyun. You're not much taller than me."

Baekhyun chuckles and continues looking up at the sky. The laughter leaves him, and in its place is the syrupy lethargy of being well on his way to drunk.

"Sometimes the stars are beautiful," says Baekhyun, after some time, "and sometimes they make me sad."

"Why?" Kyungsoo's foot taps Baekhyun's, their ankles rubbing together.

"Because sometimes when I look up at them," Baekhyun says, extending his arm upward and reaching out with an open palm, "it feels like they're close enough that I could grab one." He closes his palm, then. The grass tickles his ear, and everything is fuzzy, from soju and sleepiness and Kyungsoo's ankle pressed against his own. It's too cold to be lying outside like this, but the alcohol has got him feeling warm, and Kyungsoo doesn't seem to mind the wind either, when Baekhyun turns to look at him again.

Kyungsoo's lips are parted, and Baekhyun can see his breath when he exhales, tiny puffs of grayish white in the darkness. 

He turns his closed fist so that his thumb and fingers are facing him. "But then I open my hand, and they were never really in reach after all." He laughs, and it's a heavy feeling in his chest instead of a release. "And I think, life is kind of like that, right?"

"Yes," Kyungsoo says. "It is." He laughs. "That's so morbid, Baekhyun." His voice lilts, like he's imitating Baekhyun, and Baekhyun laughs, his odd melancholy leaving him.

"Then again…" Baekhyun drops his arm. His hand falls close to Kyungsoo's, their knuckles brushing, "Chanyeol told me once that stars are really, really hot, so maybe I wouldn't want to grab one anyway. I might be safer with the neon lights."

"Do you really want to leave Jeju?" Kyungsoo asks. He starts to play with Baekhyun's fingers, and Baekhyun's pulse quickens as the pads of Kyungsoo's fingers explore the webs of skin between each digit. He can hear it in his ears, over the sound of the waves at the harbor, and over the wind in the trees. 

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, "but no, at the same time. It's complicated but…" He closes his eyes. "I've always been here. And maybe I want to be somewhere else, experience something else." He chuckles. "I'm tied to this island, though. My roots are dug in as deep here as the roots of the trees, so deep that not even the wind goddess at her angriest can uproot them. This is home, for better or for worse."

"Home," Kyungsoo says, "must be a nice thing to have."

"Must be nice to have the world, too," Baekhyun replies, as Kyungsoo's fingers drag a path up the inside of his wrist. "To have lived all those places."

For a short while, they're quiet. Kyungsoo's palm slides to line up with Baekhyun's, but he makes no move to hold Baekhyun's hand. His hand is so small. 

"It was interesting," Kyungsoo says. "But there's a drift. It's easy to keep moving on, from people and from places."

"A ship with no anchor," says Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo swallows.

"My mom was born in Jeolbyeog-ri," he says, and Baekhyun lifts his gaze from their hands to stare at Kyungsoo in surprise. "Diving family. She was sixteen when she went to Jeju-si to study dance. She met my dad when he was down here on the island doing research for his doctoral thesis." He looks at Baekhyun, and for a moment, they just stare at each other. "You asked me, a while ago, why I chose Jeolbyeog-ri. I chose it because…" He licks his lips. "Because I needed to get away, to get myself together, and I don't have a place I really consider home. But I thought Jeolbyeog-ri might be the right choice."

"Was it?" Baekhyun asks, and Kyungsoo looks at Baekhyun, just looks at him, and then he smiles, full and broad and heart-shaped, and Baekhyun's melting, despite the cold that's bleeding through his clothes to his skin.

"Yes," Kyungsoo says, finally winding their fingers together. "It was."

They go back inside twenty minutes later, when Baekhyun's teeth start chattering. There's plenty of space in the double bed, and Kyungsoo turns his back to Baekhyun, facing the wall. 

Baekhyun falls asleep to the sound of Kyungsoo's even breathing, warm under the thick white comforter, and feeling strangely at peace.

⚘❁⚘

"This is the Dragon's Head Coast," says Baekhyun, after Kyungsoo pulls his car into the parking lot. "Hendrick Hamel was shipwrecked here in the 1600s. He was an explorer with the Dutch East India Company." Kyungsoo gives him this look, and Baekhyun runs a hand through his hair before pulling on a hat. "What?"

"I'm trying to understand," says Kyungsoo, "why you did so poorly in school." He'd bought a scarf this morning, when they'd left the guesthouse around ten, because it was snowing. Now, as they walk between wooden fences down a stone and grass path, down toward the shoreline, a thin layer of fresh snow captures their footprints.

"Because school is boring. You have to sit still and listen for hours to the same teacher talk about almost every subject, and you aren't allowed to talk or move or ask questions until the end of class." Baekhyun runs his hand along one of the top logs of the fence, sending a large clump of snow to the ground. "My class wouldn't have been like that, if I'd become a teacher."

"Would you only teach history, then?" Kyungsoo asks. He's looking at the ship that's been built on land to recreate the Dutch one that had come ashore here. Just past that is the memorial statue, and the path down to the actual lava formation coastline.

"Only Jeju history," Baekhyun says. "The rest of it's mindnumbing." He laughs. "Maybe I'd bring Chanyeol in as my daily guest lecturer. He could explain to my students all about global warming and rain cloud formations and whatever. He likes stuff like that, that normal people don't care about."

Kyungsoo laughs quietly. "You're ridiculous," he says, and Baekhyun grins.

"I'm right," Baekhyun replies, kicking up a little snow in front of him. 

When they get down to the jagged coastline, Kyungsoo keeps stopping to touch the rough rock walls. "This is all made from lava?"

"This whole island is made from lava," Baekhyun says. "Unless you believe that Grandmother Seolmundae created Jeju, of course."

"What do you think?" 

"I think that Seolmundae created Mount Halla," Baekhyun says with a wink, "and that Mount Halla did the rest."

"Best of both worlds?" Kyungsoo runs his hand along a piece of rock. 

"Why not?" Baekhyun says. "The old myths and traditions… They might not be explainable with science or whatever, but they're a different kind of true. Does that make sense?"

"Do you ever make sense?" Kyungsoo replies, and Baekhyun gets them walking again. 

They stop to buy fresh abalone from a couple of haenyeo. They have a pink and white blanket spread out along the cliffs, with bowls filled with freshly cleaned seafood, straight out of the sea and still raw. 

"Do you want to taste it?" Baekhyun asks, after he hands one of the women a few bills, and takes the paper package from her. He unwraps it, and pulls a small piece apart from the others and offers it to Kyungsoo, who immediately opens his mouth. Popping it in, Baekhyun leaves his fingertips pressed to Kyungsoo's lips as he chews. "Delicious?"

"Delicious," Kyungsoo says, looking away. He brings his own hand up to his mouth after Baekhyun pulls his away. "Shouldn't we keep walking?"

As they walk, Baekhyun tells Kyungsoo about the first time he came here, with his brother, back when he was still just a little kid. "It was before I met Jongdae, even," he says. "Our parents brought me and Baekbeom here. I held my dad's hand, and Baekbeom was holding my mom's. I think I was excited because I was waiting to see the dragon." He chuckles. "I guess I didn't know you could only see the shape of a dragon from above, in a helicopter or something."

Baekhyun leads them slightly off the main path, to a lagoon filled with clear blue water, partially turned to ice in the cold. Snow encroaches in from the edges, and Kyungsoo immediately pulls out his phone, snapping several shots. Baekhyun looks over Kyungsoo's shoulder as he sends the message to his brother. It pushes up the picture of them both in front of the waterfall, so that it's no longer on the main screen. 

"You sent your brother our selca?" Baekhyun asks, and Kyungsoo shuts the text message window. 

"I'd mentioned you in an e-mail," Kyungsoo says. "He wanted to know what you looked like." His mouth curls down at the edges, his _I've got nothing else to say about this_ face, and Baekhyun nods, letting his chin dig into Kyungsoo's shoulder. He puts his hands into Kyungsoo's pockets, too, and Kyungsoo's back stiffens. "What are you doing?"

"My hands are cold," Baekhyun says. 

"Don't you have your own pockets?" He doesn't pull away, though, just takes another picture in his camera application of the snowy water.

"Yours are warmer," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo relaxes back into him. "Do you really mind?"

"Shouldn't we keep walking?" Kyungsoo says, bluntly, and Baekhyun is sure that if Kyungsoo were a real hedgehog, he'd have been stabbed right in the chest by all of those spines, just now.

"Do you think we can walk like this?" Baekhyun teases, even as he pulls his hands free from Kyungsoo's pockets and steps back, slipping them into his own. "We'd have to time our steps. Maybe we could use that one After School song." He starts humming it, remembering how Kyungsoo had known the melody, and had joined in as he hung socks on the line one by one by the toes. "Step on the three?" Baekhyun wiggles his butt, making sure his hip bumps Kyungsoo's.

"Where would you like for me to hit you?" Kyungsoo asks, balling his hand up into a tiny loose fist, and Baekhyun laughs, too loudly, catching the attention of a few others who had wandered back here. 

"Wherever it will hurt the least," Baekhyun replies, before scampering out of the range of Kyungsoo's swatting hand, which has flattened out to deliver a slap to Baekhyun's arm.

They drive all afternoon. They stop and spend a few minutes at Hyeopjae, halfway to Jeju-si, but the snow makes the beach less inviting, and soon they're back in the car. 

"In the summer," Baekhyun says, "you can drive the Coastal Road with the windows open, and then your whole car smells like the island." He turns up the music, then proceeds to talk over it. "That only backfires near the farms."

They don't stop again until they get to Yeongduam. They buy hot tea from a vendor, and Kyungsoo buys fruit, as well, nibbling on it as they walk out to see Yeongduam, the Dragon Head Rock. 

"So tell me," Kyungsoo says, as he looks out at it.

"Tell you what?" Baekhyun laughs as Kyungsoo bumps him. "Okay, okay, well, this rock is the petrified remains of Yimugi, the Dragon King's serpent messenger." Kyungsoo eats a piece of dried fruit, and then offers one to Baekhyun, who takes it and pushes it into his mouth while continuing to speak. "He was sent on a dangerous mission to get a precious jewel from Mount Halla, only as soon as he flew up out of the Dragon King's territory, he was shot straight through the heart by the god protecting Mount Halla. He fell back into the ocean, and only his head and a few other part of his serpent body"—Baekhyun points to the other surrounding rock formations—"remained above water, turning into the same hard lava as Hallasan."

"So under the water…"

"That's where the Dragon King lives," Baekhyun says. "In the watery Dragon Kingdom. If we pray to him, take care of him, he protects the fishermen, and everyone else who makes their living from the water." Kyungsoo's hat is crooked, and Baekhyun adjusts it, as Kyungsoo continues to chew on dry fruit, watching him with unreadable eyes. "His wife is the warrior goddess who protects the people of Jeju from enemies in the north and the south."

"So many gods to protect the island," Kyungsoo says. 

"We've needed them," Baekhyun replies. "We rely on ourselves and our own guardians, in Jeju." He looks up when a snowflake falls down, landing on his coat and melting before it gets the chance to stick.

"You really love this island," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun grins at him.

"I do." Baekhyun sticks his tongue out, and catches a few snowflakes. They're tasteless and cold, but it's more the idea that counts. "It's home."

"I could love it, too," Kyungsoo says, crumpling up the empty paper cup in his hand, and Baekhyun throws an arm around his shoulders, turning him back toward the trail so they can walk back to the car.

They spend the night in Jeju-city, watching snow fall out the window. It accumulates in a thin layer, and grass pokes up, breaking the smooth surface with its stubbornly growing blades.

"I hate the snow," Kyungsoo says. They're in two smaller beds next to each other, tonight, but Baekhyun is sitting on Kyungsoo's bed anyway, his own already a mess of tangled sheets and his discarded sweatshirt and wet towel. "In Seoul, when it snows, it turns to the gray slush under the cars and buses, and makes the subway steps slippery."

"The camellia blossoms grow even when it's snowing," Baekhyun says. "Maybe we'll drive past some, when we're driving out of the city tomorrow." He picks up Kyungsoo's pillow and hugs it. "No subway stairs to worry about at all." He looks at Kyungsoo and flutters his eyelashes at him. "Plus, everything is more fun with me, right?"

Kyungsoo stares back at Baekhyun, and Baekhyun can't read him at all, suddenly, his face gone blank. "Go to bed, Baekhyun."

"But your bed's nicer than mine," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo sighs, tugging on his pillow until Baekhyun lets go.

"And whose fault is that?" Kyungsoo asks, pointedly. Laughing, Baekhyun stretches out to fill the space. "Go dream in your own bed."

"Let me sleep with you," Baekhyun whines. "It's cold." 

Kyungsoo gets off the bed and walks over to his backpack, pulling out his charger. He plugs it into the outlet and then into the phone, and the phone makes a soft chiming noise, lighting up as it detects power. "You have blankets on your own bed," he says. He's not upset, yet, but something is making him curl up again.

"You can pretend I'm a hot girl again," Baekhyun says, "like when we napped together that one time." He grabs Kyungsoo's wrist and pulls, and Kyungsoo lets himself be dragged into bed like that, lying next to Baekhyun on top of the comforter. Baekhyun releases Kyungsoo's wrist, but grabs his hand instead, stretching it with both of his own.

Kyungsoo studies him. "You said you'd rather be told things, even if you don't like them."

"Definitely," Baekhyun says. He looks straight back at Kyungsoo. "Why?"

"I don't dream about hot girls," says Kyungsoo, slowly, and Baekhyun frowns. Kyungsoo's eyelashes are especially thick, but right now, with that look on his face, they're enough to add to the heavy-lidded stare.

"That's what you said before," Baekhyun says. "I'm just teasing you, you know?"

"If I have that sort of dream, I dream about hot _boys_ ," Kyungsoo says, carefully, and then waits, as though anticipating some kind of reaction from Baekhyun.

It takes Baekhyun a minute to understand, his thumb still absently drawing patterns on the back of Kyungsoo's hand. When he gets it, he can feel his mouth fall into an ‘oh' of surprise, and he blinks rapidly at Kyungsoo. "Like Minseok-hyung?" 

Baekhyun had dreams about Minseok sometimes, too. About the shape of his eyes and the way his smile reminded Baekhyun of the summer rabbits on Gapa that hid underneath the part of the docks built into the land. Lately, though, the only mouth he thinks much about is Kyungsoo's, and that, finally, claws at his ribs and up his throat.

Kyungsoo looks unsure, like that wasn't what he expected Baekhyun to say. He quickly collects himself, though, and uncurls again. A hedgehog showing Baekhyun his belly. "Sure," he says. "Like Minseok-ssi."

"Okay," Baekhyun says. "Is there more to it?"

"That's it?" Kyungsoo asks. "My friend Joonmyun dropped a plate in my kitchen when I told him, and then asked me if I was seeing anyone as he swept up the shards of it." 

"Are you?" Feet cold, Baekhyun folds his toes under. Outside, the snow is still falling. It's faster now. He hopes tomorrow is warm enough to melt it.

"Am I what?"

"Seeing anyone?" Baekhyun looks down, at the plain white of the sheets, and wishes they were interesting enough to excuse the way he's staring at them. He listens for Kyungsoo's answer, and his heart is pounding.

"No," Kyungsoo says. "Is it really not a problem?"

"Is it supposed to be?" Baekhyun asks, finally dropping Kyungsoo's hand. "I like you because you're funny, and smart, and because I've never met anyone who talks or acts like you. I like you because you like to tease, and be teased, and you play along differently than everyone else does. And because you let me talk out all my ideas without interrupting me." He pulls at Kyungsoo's covers, until he's untucked them enough that he can get his feet under them. "The fact that you won't be competition for Kim Taeyeon's heart is only a bonus, as I see it."

"A bonus." Kyungsoo laughs. "You're something else."

"Something good, though, right?" Baekhyun smiles. "So do I have to go back to my own bed?"

Kyungsoo bends his legs at the knee, enough to get them above the top of the blankets, and then slides his legs under them. "Do what you want," he says, but he watches Baekhyun warily as Baekhyun joins him under the covers, their calves rubbing together as Baekhyun rests his cheek against the edge of Kyungsoo's pillow.

"Am I a hot boy?" Baekhyun asks, after he's gotten fully comfortable. 

Kyungsoo turns, so that he's facing Baekhyun in bed. Their knees bang, and Baekhyun moves so that his thigh slides between Kyungsoo's, so that they can fit together more easily on the smaller bed. Kyungsoo's skin is always so soft. His breathing isn't as steady as usual, and his narrow shoulders rise a bit with every sucked in breath.

"Go to _sleep_ , Baekhyun," Kyungsoo replies, and Baekhyun thinks, as he closes his eyes, Kyungsoo's exhalations warm against his eyelids, that Kyungsoo hadn't said no. The thought is lost as he falls asleep.

⚘❁⚘

They miss the sunrise on Gwangchigi beach, thanks to the snow. Kyungsoo drives slowly, since the roads haven't been cleared. Baekhyun doesn't mind: he's still sleepy, eyes sticky and swollen.

He's fully awake by the time they actually arrive, though, chattering away at Kyungsoo as he switches from song to song on his mp3 player, unable to make it through an entire one before getting bored with it. Every once in a while, Kyungsoo shoots Baekhyun a strange look, like he's expecting Baekhyun to suddenly change his mind about the whole gay thing and how he'd responded to it.

The truth is, Baekhyun's still trying to figure out what he thinks. When Kyungsoo had told him, Baekhyun had felt like his chest was on fire. Even now, as they walk side by side along the beach, weaving between packs of small children in brightly colored plastic coats, Baekhyun can feel the low simmer of it in the pit of his belly.

Still, it's not exactly a bad feeling. Baekhyun pulls on Kyungsoo's coat sleeve to get his attention, and Kyungsoo looks up from his phone. Is he texting his brother?

Baekhyun feels a flash of envy, for how often Kyungsoo sends messages to his brother, communicates with him, but in the end, Baekhyun knows it's futile to want what other people have. He stuffs the feeling down.

"My coat was orange," Baekhyun says, pointing at a small boy throwing rocks at his sister.

"When you ran around the beach shortly after dawn to bowl over older pedestrians?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun nods.

"Yeah." He laughs. "I thought I was out seeing the world, then. Coming here was a big adventure, and I've always had too much energy to stand still. That's the kind of kid I was."

"I don't know what kind of kid I was," Kyungsoo says. "But I'm pretty sure I was more quiet than you were, though."

"Imagine that," Baekhyun says. He squats down and picks up a stone. This beach has no sand, just rocks and grass and moss until you reach the water's edge. "I think any child was." He laughs. "Well, maybe not Jongdae. He's always been whiny." Baekhyun throws the stone out as far as he can toward the ocean, and it disappears under the surface of the water. "Used to do this, too. Baekbeom and I would compete to see who could throw it further. Actually, I think back then I still thought I was going to grow up and become a baseball star."

"And play for the Nexan Heroes, not the KIA Tigers, right?"

"You really don't know anything about baseball, do you?"

Kyungsoo's not wearing a hat today, and the wind is tousling his hair, sending it in all directions. "I wasn't even living in Korea, most of the time," he says, and Baekhyun bends to pick up another stone, turning it in his hand to get the feel of it.

"The Nexan Heroes didn't even exist when I was little," Baekhyun says. "They didn't even become Nexan until 2010. They were Woori before that." He throws his second stone. It goes further than the first one. "My dad and I, we liked the Chongbo Pintos, back then. I wanted to be the star pitcher."

"And your brother?" Kyungsoo's hand is in his hair, holding it out of his eyes. Baekhyun picks up two rocks this time, and gives the heavier of the two to Kyungsoo.

"He never really liked baseball," says Baekhyun. Baekhyun had tried, for so long after they moved to the guesthouse, to get Baekbeom interested, but he had brushed him off. _"Baekhyunnie, stop, I have to study."_ Baekhyun had eventually stopped trying. "He just didn't want to lose to his little brother." He runs his thumb along the rough edge of his stone. "It was something me and my dad did together. Watching baseball games, I mean."

"Father-son bonding?"

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo throw their stones at the same time. Kyungsoo's outdistances Baekhyun's, and Baekhyun elbows Kyungsoo in revenge. Kyungsoo smiles at him, and Baekhyun looks quickly away as his heart jumps.

"It's weird," Baekhyun says, "but when my mom died… that season, the Chongbo Pintos stopped existing. They got bought, and became the Taepyungyang Dolphins." He shrugs. "So the last baseball game my dad and I ever watched together, that game was the last Chongbo Pintos series game."

"So why Nexan?" Kyungsoo asks, as Baekhyun walks closer to the water, stepping on long, heavy gray stones cutting up out of the water like slabs. The children are gone, all the way down the beach now, and Baekhyun can pretend that he and Kyungsoo are alone on the beach, if he wants. The snow is starting to melt, as the sun gets higher in the sky.

"The Taepyungyang Dolphins became the Hyundai Unicorns and moved to Suwon." Baekhyun holds his arms out for balance as the stones under his feet wobble. "And then Hyundai was disbanded." He jumps down, landing in a drift of snow, and it crunches under his weight. "The Woori Heroes were the team created to replace them. So in a way, Nexan is my dad's and my team, or as close to it as I can get, these days." He chuckles. "It's probably silly."

"It's not," Kyungsoo says. "Not any sillier than me coming to Jeolbyeog-ri just because it was my mom's hometown." He smiles, lifting only the left corner of his mouth. "You ever been to a professional game?"

"Nexan and KIA played an exhibition series at Ora Stadium a couple of years ago," Baekhyun says, "but the tickets sold out really fast, and they were expensive, so…"

"You should come to Seoul, sometime," Kyungsoo says. "We can go. It's cheap, and easy to get seats, I think. You'll have to teach me the rules, though."

"You don't even know the _rules_?" Baekhyun says. He doesn't want to think about Kyungsoo leaving, so he lets the invitation wash over him and away, out with the tide.

Kyungsoo laughs, a full throaty one that makes the beach seem so much less bleak, and Baekhyun launches into an explanation of baseball tactics as they leave the seaside.

Baekhyun insists on climbing Seongsan Ilchulbong. They pay the 6000Won entrance fee, and then follow the white arrows on the road, past a few coffee shops and touristy souvenir shops.

"The hike is the important thing. The view from the top is amazing," Baekhyun says. "There are anti-slip strips on the steps, and most of the snow has melted anyway."

It takes them an hour and a half to climb to the top. Kyungsoo keeps his hand on the railing, and Baekhyun walks a little ahead of him. There are only a few others climbing to the top edge of the crater, today, and so instead of following the crowd, Baekhyun uses the signs to make sure they're going the right way. Halfway through the ascent, as they reach a flat break in the hike, an observatory, he stops Kyungsoo in front of a large rock that protrudes up out of the ground, tall and proud.

"You have to bow," he tells Kyungsoo. "Twice. In honor of Seolmundae."

"The creation goddess of Jeju, right?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun nods.

"This was the lamp she used to work at night. When she was laying the foundations of the island."

"What if I don't believe in Seolmundae?" Kyungsoo says. He's joking, Baekhyun knows, but he puts a hand on the back of Kyungsoo's shoulder and pushes, anyway. Kyungsoo pushes back, immediately, and Baekhyun grabs the railing to keep from slipping. The stone stairs are wide, but the day is warmer than yesterday, so the slush is more water than ice. Baekhyun isn't actually afraid he'll fall.

"So little and dangerous," Baekhyun says. Kyungsoo raises one eyebrow. "You could also bow twice for General Kim Tongjeong." Baekhyun looks up at the rock, an odd formation of lava that kind of has a face where it rises up above the trees. "He's the general who tried to defend Jeju from you mainlanders, back in the 1200s. He built a fortress underneath Seongsan Ilchulbong, and put a fire here, to light this rock." Baekhyun winks. "It took the Goryeo army and the Mongolian Yuan army combined to beat his troops."

Kyungsoo licks his lips. "The resiliency of Jejudo," he says, and bows twice to the rock.

Kyungsoo takes a picture of the Chongwan Rock when they pass it. "I've been texting my brother," he says. "He says it feels like he's here."

"It's not the same in pictures," Baekhyun scoffs, and Kyungsoo scratches his scalp.

"No," he says, "it really isn't."

They finally reach the top of the crater. Kyungsoo is flushed and sweaty, and Baekhyun laughs at him as he unfastens his coat. Up here, the wind blows even more fiercely. The ends of Kyungsoo's scarf escape and wave, smacking Baekhyun in the face. Baekhyun sputters, and grabs the fabric, pulling on it just enough that Kyungsoo has to step closer to him. When he does, Baekhyun moves behind him so he can protect himself. He rests his hands on Kyungsoo's shoulders.

From here, the end of the hike, they can see down into the crater itself, where last night's snow has turned into a gray slush. But Baekhyun squeezes Kyungsoo's shoulders and turns him around, so that Kyungsoo can see all the towns and villages that surround the peak. Kyungsoo leans back, slightly, his back hitting Baekhyun in the chest, and now, their cheeks brush.

"You were right again," Kyungsoo says. "About the view."

"Aren't I always?" Baekhyun asks. Kyungsoo's face is so warm from the hike, and Baekhyun leans a little closer.

"Don't get too full of yourself," Kyungsoo says. There's no heat in his voice. "It's the island doing all the hard work." He licks his lower lip as Baekhyun drops his hands and stands next to Kyungsoo instead of behind him. "Is there any part of this place that isn't gorgeous? It seems like I keep expecting to find an…" Kyungsoo pushes his hair out of his face again, "an uncut edge of the jewel, but every facet is gleaming."

"Why Kyungsoo," says Baekhyun, "that was positively poetic." He leans closer to Kyungsoo, until he can easily rest his cheek on Kyungsoo's shoulder. "I thought you didn't like poetry."

"Shut up," Kyungsoo says. "You're such a punk."

"You think I'm adorable," Baekhyun says, poking Kyungsoo's shoulder. "Admit it now, and save yourself the energy of denial."

The way down is steep. Stone stairs and wooden railings mean they have to take their time. Baekhyun starts to sing as they descend. It's the one his grandmother always sang, when they hiked together up to the halmang-dang. Even when her arthritis had gotten really bad, she'd insisted on making the hike, and Baekhyun had held her arm the last of the way.

"What song is that?"

Baekhyun stalls on the stairs, tossing a grin over his shoulder. "It's an old folk song," he says. "For strength."

Kyungsoo chuckles, lightly, winded again. "I know that song," he says. He joins Baekhyun, singing along, and it takes most of Baekhyun's concentration not to look back again, or not to trip as he listens to Kyungsoo's voice. He has a beautiful voice. Baekhyun wishes he could listen to it forever.

"How do you know it?" Baekhyun asks when they finish, and Kyungsoo hums thoughtfully.

"I guess I remember my lullabies," he says. 

At the bottom of Seongsan Ilchulbong, Kyungsoo takes a picture back up the stairs. "My co-workers will never believe I did this," he says, in explanation. "I take the elevator up to my office on the second floor."

"Well, you know," Baekhyun says, "those office building stairwells can look deceptively easy."

He dances out of Kyungsoo's range, anticipating some kind of retaliation, and doesn't let him catch up again until they're almost to the car.

"You're lucky I like you," Kyungsoo says, when Baekhyun stops and buys them both a cup of tea. "Otherwise I'd drive away without you."

"No you wouldn't," he says, handing Kyungsoo the hot cup. Kyungsoo takes it with both hands, and holds it up to his face, so that the steam warms his nose. "You're all threats."

"Maybe," Kyungsoo says, and then he smiles. Baekhyun can't look away.

⚘❁⚘

The loud music can't hide the mounting tension in the car after Kyungsoo types the Jeolbyeog-ri dock into the GPS. "Can't type the guesthouse," Kyungsoo says. "GPS can never find it."

"Did you enjoy your flash tour?" Baekhyun asks, after they've been driving for a while. They're on a lonely stretch of road. There's a bus, up ahead of them, but after about ten minutes it pulls off the road for gas, and there are no other cars blocking their view.

"Thank you," Kyungsoo says. "For this."

"For what?" Baekhyun asks, thumbing the volume button on his mp3 player to turn down the acid pop playing. "You're doing all the driving. I'm just your free tour guide."

"I didn't know how, exactly, I was going to get through Christmas this year." Kyungsoo's hands grip the steering wheel. "But there you were, all bright and bouncy and wanting to take a trip." He takes a deep breath. "I really… needed to be distracted."

"I know," Baekhyun says.

"Last year, around September, we finished a fairly large project at work," Kyungsoo says. "I was working under someone else, at the time. I wasn't project lead, but I still did checks for it. It was my first project since I'd left the military." The lines around Kyungsoo's mouth make Baekhyun want to smooth them away with his fingers until Kyungsoo slaps his hands away. "We finished early. There was a party, in October, some time. We had a lot of champagne. Everyone was congratulating my boss, and one of my friends got so drunk he threw up in a potted plant at the restaurant."

"Sounds like some party," Baekhyun says. His phone vibrates. It's Baekbeom's number. Baekhyun slides his phone back in his pocket, for later.

"The apartment building was beautiful," Kyungsoo says. Baekhyun thinks he sounds wistful. "Lots of windows, a great view of one of the Han tributaries. Just outside the busiest part of the city, too. A good place for kids."

Baekhyun shuffles through songs on his mp3 player, one after another, not really paying attention to the titles. The volume's too low to hear, anyway, he just needs something to do with his hands.

Kyungsoo's jaw is tight, the vein in his neck sticking out as he clenches his teeth. "People started showing up sick at the local clinic on Christmas Day. First it was old people, then children. Finally, the healthy adults started getting sick, too. After the death of two elderly patients, around four in the afternoon, they realized that all the patients were from the same apartment building." Kyungsoo shivers, even though his seat warmer is on high. "Our apartment building."

"Kyungsoo…"

"It was the heating system," Kyungsoo says, his voice dropping lower. "That Christmas was the coldest day of the year so far, and everyone turned on their heat at the same time. It was carbon monoxide poisoning." He swallows. "There was a flaw in the way the building had been designed. The way the chases had been laid out, between the floors, to connect to the HVAC… It didn't minimize the duct length, and there weren't enough exhaust exits." Kyungsoo shakes his head, and eases his foot off the gas. "Sorry, that probably doesn't make any sense to you."

"I don't know what any of that means," Baekhyun says. "but it's not… You couldn't have known that the system would fail, right?"

"I checked those plans," Kyungsoo says. "I wasn't supposed to give the final all clear, but I checked them." He takes a shaky breath. "I looked at them more than once. I spent hours re-measuring and editing, and I never noticed."

_"I've taught myself to care about the details,"_ Kyungsoo had told Baekhyun once. Baekhyun remembers the way Kyungsoo had pored over those old plans, had fallen asleep looking at them.

_"The consequences of being wrong are much higher."_

"It's impossible to think of everything," Baekhyun says.

"I was fine for a while. I focused on the new project. I knew this time, it would be my call. That I would be the one to sign off on the final plans, and I could make sure they'd be perfect. But then, this fall, I started to have trouble sleeping. The closer it got, to when we'd had that big party, the more coffee I drank to make up for the sleep I wasn't getting. I would close my eyes and think about how those two old men died in their living rooms," Kyungsoo says. "I think about the sick children who _could_ have died, if it had happened later at night, when their families were asleep." He licks his lips. "And then…"

"Then you came to Jejudo," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo nods, tersely.

"My mom had mentioned that I should take a vacation, maybe go to a resort down here," he says. "I think everyone knew I was going to break before I did. Joonmyun-hyung, when I called him the day after I got here, he told me he'd handle arranging my leave for me."

"You must be pretty important," Baekhyun says, "if you can get that much leave."

"My mentor from university is high up in the company. He trained me personally when I was an intern, specifically so he could hire me later. He's…" Kyungsoo frowns, "getting old."

Baekhyun reaches over and puts his hand on Kyungsoo's thigh, much like Kyungsoo had done to him three days ago. It's so quiet in the car, Baekhyun's music more of a whisper. Kyungsoo's breathing is fast, but his hands have relaxed on the steering wheel.

"Well," Baekhyun says, "you came to the right place. Jeju is an island that's gotten very good at putting things back together after they break." He pats Kyungsoo's thigh before taking his hand back. "What's one disillusioned architect after all that?"

Kyungsoo chuckles, this choked sound that's somehow both miserable and relieved. "I think it's you, that's good at putting disillusioned architects back together." The GPS beeps. "So thank you."

"You helped me too," Baekhyun says, thinking about how differently this winter is shaping up. How much less he finds himself longing for something else. "It's not a one-way street."

"All right," Kyungsoo says, and then Baekhyun turns the music back up, so Kyungsoo knows he doesn't need to say anything else.

They get home late. Kyungsoo pulls into the driveway, and Baekhyun grabs his backpack out of the backseat to scrounge around for the keys.

Kyungsoo follows him up to the door, and Baekhyun unlocks the front. He feels around for the light, and finds it. He says his usual prayers, but it doesn't turn on.

"Guess that lightbulb finally went out," he says, laughing, and they slip their shoes off in the dark, Kyungsoo waiting in the entrance of the hallway until Baekhyun turns on the light behind the welcome desk in the small room to the right of the front door.

"You had toothpaste on the corners of your lips," Kyungsoo says, "the night I checked in."

Baekhyun laughs. "I was about to go to bed," he says. "I was doing my nighttime thing."

"I thought it was…" Kyungsoo hesitates. "Cute."

"I thought you were a mysterious businessman in his thirties," Baekhyun says. "This light isn't very good. I know better now." He walks back around from behind the desk and leans on the front of it. "What about you? Do you know better too?"

"You're still cute," Kyungsoo says, catching and holding Baekhyun's gaze. Baekhyun's throat is so dry. Kyungsoo's so close: Baekhyun could count his eyelashes, if he wanted to, even in this dim light. Kyungsoo's hand rests on the desk, just to Baekhyun's right. He bites his lip as Kyungsoo leans in. "But now I'm aware that you're annoying, too."

Baekhyun breathes again when Kyungsoo steps back. "Going to bed?" It comes out wobbly.

"Yes," Kyungsoo says. "I've done a lot of driving the past couple of days."

When he climbs into his own blankets, later, Baekhyun misses Kyungsoo's steady inhale-exhale, and it takes him a while to forget how nice Kyungsoo's hair smelled, even if it shouldn't matter, since he's been using Baekhyun's brand of shampoo.

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun makes them both hot chocolate the next morning. Kyungsoo's eyes are red-rimmed, even though Baekhyun's pretty sure he'd slept, and Baekhyun doesn't want to give him coffee in case he didn't.

"Tell me about your friends," Baekhyun says. "Tell me about Joonmyun, or something."

"Why?" Kyungsoo asks, sitting down at the kitchen table. Baekhyun joins him when he's mixed his cup.

"Because I'm greedy," Baekhyun says, and then he reaches across the table and sets his hand on Kyungsoo's. He loves Kyungsoo's hands. He loves… "And I gave you a free island tour. The least you could do is entertain me over breakfast."

"You could always talk," Kyungsoo says. "You're good at that."

Baekhyun takes his hand back and uses it to prop up his face, cupping his cheek. "You already know everything about me, though. You, on the other hand, are still a mystery."

"I don't like to talk about myself." Kyungsoo licks his lips. "I don't know how to talk about myself."

"Just tell me about your friends," Baekhyun says. "Or your brother. Anything, really."

Kyungsoo's eyes across the table are intense, but Baekhyun doesn't dislike the way Kyungsoo is focusing on him. "I spend the most time with Joonmyun-hyung and Jongin."

"Joonmyun-hyung who dropped the dish when you told him you were gay," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo's eyebrows furrow.

"Yes," he says. "That's the guy. He's older than both of us, really, and he's one of our staff attorneys. Jonginnie is… We met in high school. The last one I went to, in Yokohama, Japan. He's twenty-three, and just out of the navy. He's still got a couple of years left of college, and I got him an internship at my company with design." Kyungsoo drinks from his mug. "Jongin would rather draw tiny comic people on the bottom of plans than draw the actual plans." He smiles softly, his whole face gentling, and Baekhyun grins.

"Which one doesn't like strong smells?" Baekhyun asks, and Kyungsoo's eyes narrow.

"Your memory is better than you pretend it is," he says, and Baekhyun taps his lips with his index finger.

"I only remember the interesting things," Baekhyun says. "I told you that."

"So the stuff about what smells a random friend of mine likes or doesn't like is interesting?"

"Everything you say is interesting," Baekhyun answers, fluttering his eyelashes. Kyungsoo blinks, and then the tips of his ears go red. "You're really cute, when you're embarrassed. Only your ears blush, like they're doing it because the rest of you refuses to."

Kyungsoo's gaze flickers away, to the chasteberry plants in the corner. "That's Jongin."

"What?"

"The friend who doesn't like strong smells is Jonginnie." Kyungsoo drags his thumb across the blunt edges of his nails. "He's picky about all sorts of things, actually."

"Jongin," Baekhyun says. "He sounds adorable."

"He's not as tall as Chanyeol," Kyungsoo says. "But he's taller than either of us. He knows better than to make height jokes, though."

"Did he always know better?" Baekhyun says, grinning, and Kyungsoo smirks back.

"No, I had to…"

Kyungsoo trails off, and Baekhyun turns to see why he's stopped, only to see Jongdae standing in the door, not dressed warmly enough for the weather and fiddling anxiously with his coat snaps.

"Hey," Jongdae says, raising one hand in an odd stilted wave. "Could we talk?"

Baekhyun looks down at his hot chocolate.

"I'm going to take a walk," Kyungsoo says, carefully. "I should call and check in on a few people."

He walks past Jongdae and goes into his room, probably to see if his phone is charged.

Sighing, Baekhyun abandons his mug on the table and rises from his chair. "We should walk too," he says. "Down to the inlet?"

"That would be good," Jongdae says.

Baekhyun grabs one of the two coats hanging by the door—it's his. He hasn't worn it at all during the winter, since Kyungsoo has been using it. The two of them walk quietly down from the guesthouse and around the outer edge of the village.

Baekhyun ducks into the convenience store and comes back out two minutes later with a bottle of soju. Jongdae is waiting for him, so small and quiet, and Baekhyun doesn't really acknowledge him as they fall into step again, walking the same pace out of habit.

"I came to see you," Jongdae says, breaking the silence. "A few hours after… Well, after I dropped Soojung at the bus station."

"Did you?" Baekhyun keeps his eyes straight ahead. "We left pretty early."

"I didn't know you were going anywhere," Jongdae says.

"Neither did I," Baekhyun replies. "Last minute decision."

"Yeah," Jongdae says. "I get that."

They pick their way across the rocks. The snow's almost gone, now, but Baekhyun sits down on wet rocks and doesn't even care when moisture soaks up into his jeans. Jongdae sits next to him. His sneakers are untied, and Baekhyun notices that he has dark circles under his eyes, like he hasn't slept. The corners of his mouth, the tiny curl of them, makes his expression pensive.

Baekhyun opens the soju and takes a long swig. Jongdae grabs it from him, taking an equally long drink. Then holds the bottle between his knees.

"Are you going to say anything?" Jongdae finally says, voice cracking plaintively, and normally, Baekhyun would hit him immediately with a joke about his extended puberty, but sitting here next to Jongdae, he realizes he's still so angry. That trip, with Kyungsoo, had given him the chance to push those burbling feelings down deep, out of sight and out of mind, but now they're all coming back up to the surface, breaking and crashing like the waves on the rocks a few feet away from them.

"What am I supposed to say?" Baekhyun replies, digging his toe into half-frozen moss on the rock in front of him. "That you made me feel like nothing?"

Jongdae flinches, and there's grim satisfaction, but it's fleeting. Really, Baekhyun doesn't like being mad at Jongdae. It's only happened once or twice before, and Baekhyun's never been great at dealing with it. "Baekhyunnie…"

"I just thought, you know, I was imagining it. That I was making something out of nothing, because if my best friend were dating one of my other closest friends, surely he'd tell me about it."

"I was going to tell you," Jongdae say. "Soojung really wanted to, especially last Saturday, before movie night."

"And yet," Baekhyun says. He leans over and grabs the soju. It tastes worse than usual, more bitter. "You didn't."

"It happened after Kyungsoo came," Jongdae says. "We'd been… well, flirting, before that, but nothing serious."

"What does that have to do anything?" Baekhyun's head feels light, but his body feels heavy.

"We hadn't been spending a lot of time together," Jongdae says. He's staring out at the water, his hands curling around his knees and holding them too tight. "I felt…"

"What?"

"A part of me was afraid it would upset you," Jongdae says. "But I guess the rest of me wanted to punish you."

"Punish me for what?" Baekhyun asks. He hands Jongdae back the soju, and Jongdae doesn't take a drink from it, just holds it in his right hand as he twists the cap tight and loose and tight again with his left.

"For replacing me," says Jongdae, and Baekhyun turns sharply to stare at him. "With Kyungsoo. Lately it's felt like he's your best friend, not me. So I thought, well, I'd wait and see if you were even paying attention to me, what with your shiny new friend."

"Replace you with Kyungsoo?" It's unfathomable, to Baekhyun. Kyungsoo and Jongdae are day and night, and Baekhyun doesn't feel remotely the same about either of them. "No, Jongdae, Kyungsoo isn't… It's not like that."

"You sure spend enough time with him," says Jongdae. "Lots more time than you've been spending with me, lately."

"You mean like you and Soojung?" Baekhyun snaps, and Jongdae gives Baekhyun a bewildered look.

"Soojung is my _girlfriend_ ," says Jongdae. "Of course when she's around I want to spend time with her. But that doesn't mean I'm going to ignore you. You know that's different from you finding a new best friend."

"Kyungsoo's not my best friend," Baekhyun says. "It's…" He wants to say, kind of, that it's _just_ like Jongdae and Soojung, only Kyungsoo isn't Baekhyun's girlfriend.

Something about that punches Baekhyun in the gut, though, and he'll have to think about it, later, when Jongdae isn't looking like a wounded puppy, or maybe like one of those wild-eyed foals that Chanyeol's got under a saddle for the first time. Fingers icier than the wind are wrapping around his heart, though, and it's hard to ignore.

"Kyungsoo is…" He starts again, but nothing acceptable comes to mind. His thoughts are racing, and _later_ , he tells himself. Figure it out _later_. "I like him," Baekhyun says, and Jongdae looks at him. "But he's not _you_ , Jongdae. He's not my best friend who might as well be my brother." He crosses his arms and looks away. "He'd never be this featherbrained."

"Yeah, probably not," Jongdae says. "He doesn't seem like the type."

"He's not," Baekhyun says. He looks back at Jongdae, and sure, Jongdae's older now, but Baekhyun can still see the remnants of the way he'd looked as a kid, and as a teenager, too, wearing his brother's old high school uniform and hunched over their shared desk in their first year classroom, because teachers hadn't known to separate them yet. He sees Jongdae in his military cap, whining at Baekhyun about the food and telling him about all the things he can't wait for his mother to cook for him over leave. "But you know, I love you anyway."

"More than your houseguest?" Jongdae teases, only his voice is all wet and soppy. The air all rushes from Baekhyun's lungs as he contemplates how to explain things to Jongdae without poking at the stuff he still needs to figure out.

"I don't replace people," Baekhyun says, after a long silence. "Other people replace me. I just make friends quickly so I don't have to be alone when they do."

At Baekhyun's reply, Jongdae drops the soju bottle in between the rocks. Some of the liquid splashes out, and it gets lodged within Baekhyun's reach. "So I'm still your best friend?"

Baekhyun bites his lip. "Of course you are," he says. He's embarrassed, because his eyes are stinging and he can barely hear the ocean over how loudly his heart is pounding. He can't bear to look at Jongdae's face, either, because he feels like he's nine all over again, and Jongdae is sitting next to him, offering to be friends again for the first time. "Kyungsoo's… he's important to me," Baekhyun sucks in a lungful of air, "but…it's not like…" He wipes furiously at his eyes with the back of his hand. "It's not like he's the person who's had my back most of my life. He's not you, Jongdae. He's something else."

"Baekhyunnie…"

Baekhyun blindly fishes for the soju bottle and finds it, taking a long swig. His eyes keep watering, and it's annoying and frustrating.

Jongdae almost tackles him to the rocks. Soju splashes across both of their jeans, and Baekhyun curses as Jongdae's arms wrap around him. "You're such an asshole," says Jongdae. "You had me thinking I was just the person you hung out with because there wasn't anyone else, maybe, or…" He sighs. "You're different, with Kyungsoo, than you ever were when Chanyeol came. With Chanyeol, you made a new friend, but I never felt like you'd choose spending time with him over spending time with me. But with Kyungsoo…"

"I pretended not to notice you and Soojung forever, you dick," replies Baekhyun. Jongdae looks up at him, surprised. "I knew, and I didn't want to know, because it meant…" He swallows. It meant he was going to get left behind again. "Paying more attention to Kyungsoo was paying less attention to you and Soojung and what you weren't telling me."

"It wasn't right not to tell you," says Jongdae. "It made sense in my head at the time…"

"That should have been the first warning sign," Baekhyun jokes, weakly, but it's enough to make Jongdae laugh, and then Baekhyun laughs too. "The second warning sign is that Soojung thought it wasn't a good idea."

Baekhyun's anger and frustration is gone now, mostly, and even if it's left an aftertaste, he knows that will fade eventually.

"I'm not that whipped, yet," Jongdae says, and then he narrows his eyes. "Are you sure you haven't been, like, secretly into her all this time?"

"Didn't I tell you I was over Soojung in high school?" Baekhyun says. His voice feels thick, and Jongdae can probably hear how close Baekhyun is to crying. "She's like a sister to me. I _told_ you."

"Didn't I tell you the same thing?" replies Jongdae. "I lied. I never got over Soojung." He laughs, kind of thick too. "And she's definitely _not_ like a sister to me."

" _Gross_ ," Baekhyun says, putting a hand to Jongdae's chest so he can push him, and Jongdae sputters as he falls backwards, bony butt slipping until he's caught by the hips between two rocks.

"Hey!"

"I told Soojung I'd beat up any boyfriend she brought home," Baekhyun says, smiling at Jongdae even as his chest constricts. "I oughta be a man of my word."

The walk home is better. They race up the main road, like old times, and Baekhyun dumps the empty soju bottle into the recycling as they pass the movie theater.

Jongdae has to work, and so Baekhyun goes back to the guesthouse alone. When he gets up to the end of the path, mud caked on his shoes, there's a rental car in the driveway.

He quickly jogs the last few steps to the guesthouse, and then runs in through the front door after leaving his muddy sneakers outside instead of in the entryway. He'll clean them off later. There are a pair of leather shoes neatly lined up with the first step, right next to Kyungsoo's.

In the kitchen is a man around Baekhyun's height, wearing pressed tan pants. He's standing the same way Baekhyun stands, with a hand in his pocket and all his weight on his heels. He's shaking his phone, frustrated, like he's forgotten that it won't work here.

"Hyung?" Baekhyun asks, and Baekbeom turns around.

"Baekhyunnie," he says, smiling, as usual, but with a bit of chastisement in his eyes. "I've called you six times over the past two days. You need to check your phone."

"I don't get service out here," Baekhyun says, taking off his coat. "You know that." He remembers, suddenly, yesterday's call. "I'm sorry, though. But what are you doing here? It's not a holiday."

"It's dad," Baekbeom says. "He's… sick. I was listed as his first contact, and I got the phone call yesterday from Seogwipo Medical Center."

"Oh," Baekhyun says. "Is he… okay?" 

"Baekhyun!" Kyungsoo walks into the kitchen, with a bag in hand. "I thought we could make noodles for dinner…" He stops, and looks between them. Baekhyun knows he's cataloguing the differences in their faces, because everyone does it. "Should I go to my room and let you talk?"

"This is my older brother," Baekhyun says. "Baekbeom, this is Do Kyungsoo."

"It's nice to meet you, Do-ssi," says Baekbeom. "And yes, please, a few minutes will be more than enough."

"Not a problem," Kyungsoo says, putting the bag on the counter. He leaves, and Baekbeom watches him go.

"A guest in the winter?"

Baekhyun shrugs. "He's a special case." He sits on the edge of the kitchen table. Baekbeom still looks like he belongs here, in the guesthouse kitchen, even in his high-end lawyer clothes. "So what's up with dad?"

"He's finally had enough alcohol that his body's giving up on him," Baekbeom says, tone hard. "We'll go see him tomorrow. I saw him a few hours ago, but we have to decide what to do with him, now. He won't be able to live on his own, anymore."

"You say that like you haven't already decided," Baekhyun says. He feels too emotionally exhausted right now to deal with this. "You're going to leave it in my hands. Just like the guesthouse. Just like grandma, when she got sick. Just like everything else. You'll be back in Busan by the end of the week."

"You like it here," Baekbeom says. "You've always liked it more than I do."

"How would I know?" Baekhyun asks. "I've never had the chance to try liking anything else." He slides down from the table. "Your room's mostly the way you left it. I took the desk. You weren't using it."

Baekhyun leaves Baekbeom in the kitchen, retreating to his room. He sits down on his blankets and bedding, still unfolded from last night, and picks up his _Learn Chinese!_ book.

The words swim on the page as he tries, yet again, to get through the third chapter.

⚘❁⚘

"I guess you don't want noodles," Kyungsoo says, half an hour later. He stands unsurely in the door of Baekhyun's room, and Baekhyun tosses his book aside, sitting up.

"Not too hungry at the moment," Baekhyun says. Kyungsoo is still dithering, so Baekhyun rubs the space next to him. Kyungsoo comes and sits down, both of them with their backs to the wall.

"You weren't expecting your brother?" Kyungsoo asks. His legs are stretched out in front of him like Baekhyun's, his jeans replaced with his black tracksuit pants.

"He never comes here," Baekhyun says. "He got out of high school and got the hell out of Jeolbyeog-ri before anyone could even think about him inheriting this place." He sighs, and thunks his head against the wall. It hurts. "Lunar New Year and Chuseok. Twice a year, he comes down here, and we go together to Gapa."

The trip is cold, in the winter. Baekhyun hates it most in early February.

"Where your father lives," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun rolls his head around to look at Kyungsoo. "So do you only see your father twice a year?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. He picks at his blanket until Kyungsoo subtly moves closer, enough that every time he plucks at the fabric his knuckles rub against Kyungsoo's knee. Kyungsoo traps his hand against the blanket after the third brush. "Does that tickle?"

"Yes," Kyungsoo says. He presses down, and then slides his fingers between Baekhyun's, his palm warm on the back of Baekhyun's hand. "So cut it out, punk."

"My dad was always really cool, when I was a kid," Baekhyun says, after a short silence. "Like, a little kid. But that was when my mom was still alive." He closes his eyes. "But then she died, and my dad… wasn't such a good dad anymore."

Baekhyun remembers the way their small house in Gapa started to smell like beer and sweat all the time. The way the food would go bad in the refrigerator until Baekbeom threw it out. The way Baekbeom had told Baekhyun one morning, in an urgent whisper, to pack a few of his favorite things, because their neighbor was going to take them to the main island on his boat, and grandpa was going to pick them up from the dock.

"Baekbeom had to deal with a lot, then, probably," Baekhyun says. "But I still don't get how it was so easy for him to leave." He barely stops himself from saying ‘me' at the end of it. "I couldn't do that. I guess we aren't much alike, in the end. Just in the face."

Kyungsoo lets go of Baekhyun's hand and moves. Baekhyun watches as Kyungsoo throws a leg over both of Baekhyun's, so that he's looking Baekhyun right in the face, thighs on either side of Baekhyun's knees. "You have the same ears," he says, tugging on Baekhyun's earlobes. "But your mouths are totally different."

Baekhyun stares as Kyungsoo with wide eyes as Kyungsoo lets go of his earlobes and cups his cheeks instead. His thumb dips into the curve above Baekhyun's upper lip. "Mine's better, though, right?" Baekhyun says, sotto voce, and his lips rub against Kyungsoo's thumb.

"I don't know," Kyungsoo says. "Does he use his to talk as much and as constantly as you do?"

"No," Baekhyun says, resting his hands flat on Kyungsoo's thighs. "Does that mean I lose the competition?"

Kyungsoo's eyes are dark. All the thoughts Baekhyun had been afraid to confront, earlier, when he'd been talking to Jongdae, come rushing in like the evening waves on the beach. Baekhyun's pulse is racing. His heart is pounding, like he's been running. Kyungsoo's legs are so warm on either side of his knees, and the muscles in his thighs jump under Baekhyun's spread hands. His lips are slick, where he's licked them, and Baekhyun's gaze keeps dropping to them.

It seems obvious, now, as he stares at Kyungsoo, why he'd wanted to tell Jongdae that the way he feels about Kyungsoo is the way Jongdae feels about Soojung. So obvious. So simple.

Kyungsoo takes a shaky breath, and leans back. The moment breaks, and Baekhyun snatches his hands away from Kyungsoo's thighs. Kyungsoo's ears burn the brightest red Baekhyun's ever seen. 

"I need to go shower," Kyungsoo says, hurriedly. His hands pull away, and he's standing up and leaving before Baekhyun can say anything at all.

"Oh fuck," Baekhyun says, when he's alone in the room. He can't seem to catch his breath. "Fuck."

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun leaves the guesthouse before breakfast.

When he'd woken up, sweaty and anxious with his stomach tied up in anchor hitch knots, his first instinct had been to check on Kyungsoo. Only that had reminded him of what had happened with Kyungsoo, last night, his hands on Baekhyun's face, and the revelation of that moment, which makes it hard for him to pull himself free of his blankets, and harder still to go through his morning routine with unsteady hands.

Baekbeom's door is firmly shut, so Baekhyun takes a boiled egg from the fridge and peels it over the sink, before biting into it as he walks into the entryway. He puts on his coat, then goes outside, where his shoes still sit on the front steps.

He stands out on the front porch for awhile, watching the sun rise, and breathing in the winter scent of the camphor trees, which is milder than the heavy summer odor. He checks the gas on his scooter before starting it up for a drive down to the stable house where Chanyeol works. He wears a helmet, since it's out already, and proceeds to drive way too fast down the empty highway, and even faster up the side road to the stables.

He doubts the weather is good enough for a ride, but hanging out with Chanyeol will probably help him clear his head, at least about Kyungsoo. His sleep last night hadn't been too great.

Chanyeol's brushing down Mocha when Baekhyun opens the door. His face is red and bright from the wind, and he offers Baekhyun a big grin when he turns to see who's come in. "What if I hadn't been working today?"

"I'd have spent some time with Jinri," Baekhyun says, "and she's way prettier than you, so it wouldn't have been a huge loss."

"I know the truth, Baekhyunnie," says Chanyeol. "You think _I'm_ the prettiest. You came all this way to see me, after all."

"Maybe I came to see Mocha," Baekhyun says.

"One day, I'm not going to be here, and you're going to learn to use your phone and call people."

"You work _every day_ ," Baekhyun says. "I bet you were the type of student who went to class even when you were super sick so you wouldn't disappoint your teachers."

"Wrong," Chanyeol says. "I went because you can't make up a whole day of classes that easily, and once you get behind, you're stuck behind."

Baekhyun walks closer to where Chanyeol is grooming Baekhyun's favorite pony, and sits on the edge of the fence around the open area, where there are usually a few ponies roaming free to warm up. "I skipped class because I didn't want to go," says Baekhyun, "and never made up my work."

"How was your trip?" Chanyeol asks. He's cut his hair, very short, and most of it's hiding under his baseball cap, a gray one with some American basketball team on it.

"I took Kyungsoo on a tour of the coast," says Baekhyun. "It was good."

"Jongdae came down here a few days ago saying you'd left, and Kyungsoo had left, and that he was a horrible person, so I hope you worked that out."

"We did," Baekhyun says. "He's dating Soojung."

"I know," Chanyeol says. "Jongdae mentioned that too, right after the horrible person part."

"Ah. No ponies are out today but Mocha?"

"We're not doing any rides today. Too much mud, and the trails are too slippery for newbies. But Mocha hadn't been out in a few days so I took her for a short ride." Chanyeol grins and pets Mocha's flank. "But now I have to clean her up." Mocha shakes impatiently, and Chanyeol coos at her. "Fidgety just like Baekhyun, aren't you, babe?"

Baekhyun glowers at Chanyeol's back.

"So," Chanyeol says, moving on with the brush to the last patch of Mocha's coat, "now that Jongdae and Soojung are dating, you'll have to make your move on Kim Taeyeon soon, right?" 

"Haven't you heard?" Baekhyun kicks at the floor, and scuffs the toe of his sneaker. It also peels away some of the caked mud. "She's dating Minseok-hyung." Baekhyun had seen them, after all, and it'll only be a matter of time before someone else does.

Chanyeol puts down the horse brush, and turns to look at Baekhyun. "Really? No, I hadn't heard about it." He walks over to Baekhyun and pats his shoulder, way too hard because he never knows his own strength. "How you holding up? Is your heart broken into a million tiny pieces?"

"Nah," Baekhyun says. "I've been over her for a long time now." Chanyeol sits down in front of him, on a ladder, and leans forward. 

"This is the first I've heard about that," Chanyeol says, and Baekhyun rubs his hands on his jeans. "Have you moved on to someone new?" 

Baekhyun thinks about Kyungsoo, his thumbs on Baekhyun's mouth and legs so hot straddling Baekhyun's own. "Maybe I've realized she's just not my type." He waves one hand, airily, and then grins at Chanyeol, hoping it looks more real than it feels. "Maybe Minseok-hyung is my type."

Chanyeol laughs. "Well, there are worse types in the world," he says. "Minseok-hyung is a cool dude."

"He's also a man," says Baekhyun, and Chanyeol stands up, walking back over to Mocha, who whinnies softly until Chanyeol digs around in his pocket for a treat. "So…"

"I mean, yeah," Chanyeol says, "but hey, bottlenose dolphins mate with other males in the wild." He uses his fingers to detangle Mocha's mane. "Actually, researchers identified a pair of male dolphins who maintained a mated relationship for seventeen years." He looks over his shoulder at Baekhyun. "And let's not forget rams, and penguins, and _bonobos_ — did you know that sexual encounters between bonobos of the same gender can increase social standing—"

"Chanyeol, no one cares about the mating habits of bonobos." Baekhyun runs a hand through his hair, and walks over to stand next to Chanyeol, letting Mocha nibble at his fingers as Chanyeol works out the last of the knots. "Do you have to sound like the audiobook version of my high school science text all the time?"

"All I'm saying is, if Minseok-hyung was your type, it wouldn't be a complete statistical anomaly, as far as Mother Nature goes," says Chanyeol. He sneaks a look at Baekhyun out of the corner of his eye, and Baekhyun holds up both hands in visual protest.

"I'm not secretly pining after Minseok-hyung. It was just a hypothetical." Baekhyun swallows.

Chanyeol nods to himself, and then grins. "Well, I'm glad you're not all broken up about Taeyeon-noona. There's someone out there for you, Baekhyunnie."

"Yeah, maybe," Baekhyun says, biting his lip. He thinks about how much he likes the way Kyungsoo's hand fits with his. "But what are the chances that, even if I found that person, they'd want to stay here, in Jeolbyeog-ri?" 

Chanyeol turns to look completely at Baekhyun then, an odd expression on his face. "Baekhyun, do you…"

"It's still hypothetical," Baekhyun says.

"Then hypothetically," Chanyeol says, "the person for you would understand what Jeolbyeog-ri means to you, and you guys would work it out." He pets Mocha's flank. "I'm about done here. You free this afternoon? I'm obviously not on shift."

"No," Baekhyun says. "My brother's in town."

"Is it the apocalypse?" Chanyeol asks, and Baekhyun laughs, dry and humorless.

"No, my dad's… under the weather. We're going to visit him at the hospital."

"Wish him well for me?" Chanyeol rubs his hands on his red horseback tour vest. "Maybe I'll stop by the guesthouse and see if your Kyungsoo wants to get dinner with me."

"My Kyungsoo?" Baekhyun's heart jumps up into his throat and lodges there.

"He's your guest, isn't he? I just thought he might like some company while you were gone."

"It's a good idea," Baekhyun says. "Thanks."

"For what?" Chanyeol smiles at him, ears sticking out obscenely with his new haircut. 

"For caring about the mating habits of bonobos, I guess," Baekhyun mumbles, and Chanyeol's eyes narrow thoughtfully before his grin powers back up to full wattage.

"No problem, buddy," Chanyeol says, with another overpowering cuff to the shoulder that sends Baekhyun reeling. "What are friends for?"

⚘❁⚘

He does feel better when he gets back to the guesthouse, after talking to Chanyeol. Chanyeol has a way about him, sometimes, when he's not rattling off nerdy Wikipedia trivia, like he knows what Baekhyun needs to hear, even before Baekhyun knows he needs to hear anything at all. Baekhyun thinks it's the same instinct that makes them laugh at each other's bad jokes.

Stepping back into the guesthouse, Baekhyun frowns at the winter dust collecting again in the hallway. It's collecting under the space heater, too. He'll push up his sweatshirt sleeves and mop it all tomorrow.

Baekbeom is awake, drinking coffee in the kitchen. Baekhyun makes a face at him, and he frowns back. "Are you ready to go?" Baekbeom asks.

"Is Kyungsoo awake?" Baekhyun twists his Nexan cap so that it's sideways, and Baekbeom looks at him curiously. "My guest, Kyungsoo."

"I don't think so. I didn't expect you to have a guest in the winter."

"Yeah, I was surprised when he showed up, too," says Baekhyun. Kyungsoo, with his slicked back hair and his Lexus and his grim expression. Baekhyun rubs at the tight spot at the center of his chest.

"You two seem… I don't know, I thought he might be a friend, at first, not a guest."

"He is a friend, now," Baekhyun says. "He's been here since early November."

"You always were good at making friends," says Baekbeom. "Much better than I've ever been."

"Kyungsoo is…" Baekhyun smiles, then shakes his head. "Never mind. Let me leave him a note, and then we can go."

Baekhyun slides a piece of paper under Kyungsoo's door, telling him that he and Baekbeom have left and warning him that Chanyeol might show up, and Kyungsoo opens the door. He looks tired, and Baekhyun brushes Kyungsoo's hair out of his face. "Hey," Baekhyun says. "Good morning."

"You're leaving?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun nods. 

"I'll be back tonight," he says, then he pops his lips indecisively, before he adds: "Do you think we could talk?"

Surprise flashes in Kyungsoo's eyes. "About what?" His lips are swollen from sleep, and he brings one hand up to scratch at his cheek, leaning into the doorframe. His night-shirt shifts, revealing a larger pale slice of skin at the collarbone.

Baekhyun licks his own lips. "I'm working on figuring that out," he says. "I'll hopefully have some kind of answer tonight."

That makes Kyungsoo smile at him. "Don't hurt yourself," he says, and Baekhyun lets out a relieved laugh, because even swamped with these feelings, things between them still feel… comfortable.

"No promises," Baekhyun says. "I told you, I like to live dangerously."

"Right," Kyungsoo says. "I remember." An amused twist to his lips, and Baekhyun looks away.

After a quick drink of water from the pitcher in the refrigerator, Baekhyun is climbing into Baekbeom's rental car for the drive down to Seogwipo-si. 

Driving with Baekbeom isn't like driving with Kyungsoo. Baekbeom, for all his and Baekhyun's differences, shares Baekhyun's inability to sit still, and Baekhyun's need to choose the music. 

When they were still small, Baekhyun would throw tantrums about which station the radio was on, as their mother washed rice over the sink. Baekhyun would laboriously haul himself up onto a chair, and then balance himself on it so he could reach the counter. His mother kept the radio just in his reach, because she knew how much Baekhyun hated to listen to the news. 

Baekbeom was tall enough to reach the radio dial without climbing on anything at all, and he'd come into the kitchen and switch it easily back, and then laugh when Baekhyun pouted up at him, ruffling his hair if he whined too loud.

Older now, Baekhyun just tunes out the boring stuff Baekbeom has them listening to, and studies the scenery.

"So tell me what's been going on with you," Baekbeom says, after ten minutes of quiet. The weather is clear, and Baekhyun has a great view of the trees out the window. "How are Jongdae and Jongdeok doing?"

"Well, you know, fine. They're both fine." 

"And what about you?" Baekbeom asks. "Do you need anything?"

Baekhyun looks over at his brother, and thinks of a hundred responses: _I wish it were still gamgyul season_ or _all my friends are growing up without me and I don't think I'll be catching up anytime soon_ or _I'm trying to figure out why I want to kiss a man and it's keeping me from sleeping at night_ or even _I feel like I'm going to spend forever in Jeolbyeog-ri, with nothing to look forward to, for the rest of my life._

He slouches in the seat, seatbelt digging into his throat. "I don't need anything," Baekhyun says. "I'm fine too."

"You could tell me, if you weren't," Baekbeom says. "I know you like to play at always being happy, but I'm still your older brother." He sneaks a glance over at Baekhyun, and Baekhyun pretends not to notice. "So, if you… needed someone to talk to… I'm here."

And maybe Baekhyun's just on edge, still, about everything: about Jongdae, and about Kyungsoo, and about how Baekbeom is acting like he's always around to listen to Baekhyun's problems, but something in him snaps.

"Just like you were here when I didn't have friends when you brought me here? Or when I was failing high school? Or maybe you mean like when our grandmother died, and I had to plan the funeral and conduct the services for the first four days by myself because you were too busy with work to come home and help me. Here like that, hyung?"

"I had my own things to work out, Baekhyunnie," says Baekbeom. "You weren't old enough yet to realize how bad it was, right after Mom died." He musses his hair with his left hand, his right still on the steering wheel. "You came to Jeolbyeog-ri and fell in love with it. All I could think about is how much I wanted to get off the island and do something else with my life."

Baekbeom had left three days after his high school graduation ceremony. Baekhyun hadn't even finished middle school yet. "Yeah, I know. Just like you knew what your leaving would mean for me."

"You could sell the guesthouse," Baekbeom says. "If you really wanted to."

"You know I can't," says Baekhyun. "Our ancestors are buried on that property. And if we sell it, the first buyers interested are going to be resort developers or the government." He folds his arms. "I don't want to sell it, anyway," he adds, after a few moments. "It's been in Mom's family forever."

They don't talk again until Baekbeom pulls the car into a space in the parking garage. He puts it into park. "Just because you leave someone, it doesn't mean you don't love them," he says, firmly. 

"Does it mean you don't love them _enough_?" Baekhyun replies, and then gets out of the car, slamming the door. It hadn't felt good to say, like he'd thought it would. Instead, he just feels guilty and selfish. "I'm sorry," he says, when Baekbeom gets out on the driver's side. "For yelling at you."

"You meant what you said, though, right?" Baekbeom says quietly, and Baekhyun doesn't reply. He stares down at his shoes, instead. The laces are nearly ruined. 

Baekbeom makes a frustrated noise in the back of his throat, and Baekhyun's eyes fly up to look at him.

"Baekhyunnie, my leaving didn't have anything to do with you," Baekbeom says. "I just had things I wanted. And you've always loved it here. Loved it more than I ever did."

"You don't know what it's like," Baekhyun says, "to watch people go, one by one, on to something bigger," he adjusts his cap, pulling on the brim, "and know you aren't going anywhere." He scratches his nose. "Everyone leaves. And I… I stay, because one of us has to. You made that decision for me. And…"

"And what?" Baekbeom asks. He leans against the car, and Baekhyun thinks this might be the first time in years that Baekbeom has really seemed to be listening to him when he speaks.

"Do you remember how we used to compete, over who could throw the rock further? I'd always lose."

"It's because your arms weren't as long or as strong," Baekbeom says. "It would probably be an even competition, now."

"Only I don't try to throw rocks farther than anyone, anymore," Baekhyun says. "Because I don't want to be a baseball player, and I'm not trying to get my big brother to pay attention to me anymore, either." Baekbeom frowns at him, and Baekhyun stops him from responding with: "We should head up to see Dad, right?"

Baekhyun's father has lost a lot of weight since the last time Baekhyun saw him, back in September. He looks listless, lying in the bed, with the whites of his eyes tinged yellow and his swollen wrists and ankles. _"It's cirrhosis,"_ Baekbeom had told him, on the way up in the elevator. _"His liver is finally feeling the strain of his lifestyle."_

"Hey, Dad," Baekhyun says, and his father looks up at him and smiles. "How are you feeling?"

"Not great," his dad replies. He smiles at Baekhyun, and Baekhyun's eyes widen. His dad's gaze is clear, and Baekhyun realizes that this stay in the hospital means his dad isn't allowed to have anything to drink. His dad hasn't smiled at him like this in a long while. At Chuseok, this year, Baekhyun and Baekhyun had ended up eating dinner alone the first night, because he'd passed out around three-thirty in the afternoon. "Nice hat."

"Nexan's going to win this year," Baekhyun says. "It's not too late to get in on the best team in the KBO."

"I haven't watched baseball in a long time," his dad says. "Maybe I should start again." 

He's almost unrecognizable, this man talking to Baekhyun from a hospital bed. "Yeah," Baekhyun says, looking away, "well, I've already picked the best team."

"I'll take your word for it." His dad's voice… it reminds Baekhyun of being small and thinking his dad was the coolest person he'd ever know. He glances over at Baekbeom, who is staring at their father solemnly, and wonders what Baekbeom makes of all this. "Tell me all about their stats, then, kiddo."

Baekbeom excuses himself to talk to the nurse, and Baekhyun, slowly at first, but then with mounting enthusiasm, explains Nexan's current prospects to his father, starting with the pitching rotation and then delving into the outfielders. His dad leans into the conversation, and something inside Baekhyun eases as he leans in too.

"Baekhyunnie," his dad says, later, as Baekhyun winds down, "you know I love you, right?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "I know." He grins at his dad, and adjusts his blankets.

He and Baekbeom stay until his dad falls asleep. Then Baekhyun follows Baekbeom out into the hall, both of them quiet. They get into the elevator and head down. Baekhyun is going to take the bus back to the guesthouse. Baekbeom will stay in the city tonight.

"So the nurse says Dad can be discharged tomorrow." Baekhyun turns to look at Baekbeom, who is fishing out his cigarettes before they even make it outside the lobby.

"I'll make up a room for him at the guesthouse," Baekhyun says. "It won't take me long. I've kept the place really clean since Kyungsoo's been around."

"Actually," Baekbeom says, "I'm taking Dad back with me to Busan."

Baekhyun's lips part in surprise. "What?" That doesn't make sense, to Baekhyun. He's the one with the time to take care of their dad, and the one with all the room. 

"His doctor recommended a treatment facility, not far from Uncle's house," Baekbeom says, "and the guesthouse is far from the hospital. So if Dad's amenable, I think he's going to come with me." Baekbeom scratches his neck, the same way Baekhyun knows he does. "I think… it might be good for him, to get away from the island, too. I know it helped me."

"Maybe," says Baekhyun. "Dad seems…"

"It's been so long," says Baekbeom, "that I forgot what he was like." He swallows. "Before, I mean. What he was like before."

"Are you sure it's okay?" Baekhyun says. Baekbeom's the one with a life, after all. The one with a law career and a fiancée and people he visits on the weekend. Baekhyun is just the custodian of their family property, making just enough money from guests to pay the bills. "Are you doing this because of what I said to you earlier?"

"It's okay as long as you come and visit," Baekbeom says. "I know you think I'm the worst, for not wanting to come back here that much, but it's not because I don't want to see you." He smiles at Baekhyun wryly. Kyungsoo is right, Baekhyun thinks. Baekbeom has their mother's mouth, and Baekhyun's always smiled more like their dad. "You always could have come seen me. You've always been welcome, Baekhyunnie."

"Have I been?" Baekhyun had always felt like he'd been one of the things Baekbeom had fled Jeju to escape. His little brother, too clingy, too noisy, too… "It never really seemed like that." 

"I'm not… Good at people, like you are," Baekbeom says. "You know that." He looks away. "You and dad can watch baseball games, if you come visit in the spring. I could… leave work early, and we could drive to the stadium." 

"That sounds…" Baekhyun rubs his stomach to calm the anxious tightening, staring at Baekbeom carefully, "kind of nice, actually." 

"Doesn't it?" Baekbeom replies, and Baekhyun nods. "I'll… try to message you more. If you reply."

Baekhyun shrugs. "I guess I could do that," he says. He thinks about Jongdae and Jongdeok, who bicker constantly but take backpacking trips together once a month. About Soojung and Sooyeon, who spend hours looking through magazines together and always want to be together. About Minseok, who is always looking over his little sister's shoulder to make sure no one's taking advantage, and about Kyungsoo, texting his brother random pictures, and wonders if he could ever have something like that with Baekbeom. He doesn't want to count on it. "I'd better go, before I miss the last bus."

"I'll e-mail you tomorrow," Baekbeom says. "When we leave and when I get Dad home."

"Okay," Baekhyun says, waving goodbye to Baekbeom and hailing a cab to take him to his bus stop.

The bus ride home is long. Baekhyun sits at the back of the bus, and listens to his music loudly enough to drown out the chatter of the other passengers. As night falls, Baekhyun watches the world pass by out the window. He falls asleep, for a time, and wakes up only two stops before his own. When the bus stops, at the edge of Jeolbyeog-ri, Baekhyun has to shake out his sleeping leg before he can get off the bus, nodding to the driver. 

It's late. The stars are bright overhead, and light blooms from the windows of the houses Baekhyun passes, skimming his hands along the rock walls that protect all the low houses from the wind. 

The walk to the guesthouse wakes him up, and when he gets up to the front door and opens it, the lights are on. 

Kyungsoo is in the main room. He's on his laptop, but when he sees Baekhyun, he folds it closed, setting it down on top of the table and turning on his cushion. "You're home," he says, and smiles.

It's nice, Baekhyun thinks, to come home to someone. It's even better, he thinks, to come home to Kyungsoo like this, with his hair casually tousled and his collarbones peeking out from the stretched out neck of his shirt, his legs tucked beneath him on his cushion. Smiling at Baekhyun.

Kyungsoo's smile never fails to catch and hold Baekhyun's attention, not since the first time he'd seen it, up at the end of that hike, when Kyungsoo's face had been flushed from effort and chafed by winter wind.

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, after a beat too long of quiet, "I am. The bus takes approximately forever." He grins back at Kyungsoo.

"Your brother didn't come back with you?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun shakes his head. 

"Nope, it's just us tonight." Baekhyun tries to let go of the afternoon and settle into the now. He sits down next to Kyungsoo, taking his coat off as he does, and then throws his coat on the floor next to him. Kyungsoo stares at him, watching him. Baekhyun deliberately sits close enough that their knees brush. "Disappointed? I know you think his mouth is better than mine."

"I never said that," Kyungsoo replies, slowly. He runs a hand through his hair. "Don't put words into my mouth." He takes the hand from his hair and rests it on Baekhyun's thigh. "How is your father?"

"He's… " Baekhyun sighs. "It's weird, but..." He bites his lip, and Kyungsoo's gaze flickers down. "He looked sick, but he acted... It was like seeing the real him again for the first time in years." 

Kyungsoo's eyes are looking back into his again, and maybe Baekhyun had imagined the way Kyungsoo had looked at his lips. Then Kyungsoo's hand moves, higher on his thigh, and all of the air in Baekhyun's lungs comes rushing out, leaving him breathless.

"That's good," Kyungsoo says. "Right?"

"Baekbeom is taking Dad back to Busan," says Baekhyun. Kyungsoo's eyes are so serious as he looks at him, and Baekhyun shivers at the intensity. "There's a really good treatment center near where my uncle lives, and..." He forgets the rest of his sentence as Kyungsoo starts to withdraw his hand, fingers tickling Baekhyun through the denim.

"And?"

Baekhyun puts his own hand on top of Kyungsoo's to stop him. "I don't remember," he says.

Suddenly, everything from yesterday comes rushing back: all the feelings that Baekhyun had spent the night trying to puzzle out. The confusion and the want are overwhelming, and Baekhyun can't organize it at all in his head: he can't make sense of the way his heartbeat is out of control or the way blood rushes up his neck or the way the warmth of Kyungsoo's fingers steals away his concentration so easily.

Kyungsoo is staring down at Baekhyun's hand over his own, eyebrows furrowed together. His mouth is pursed, his full lips pale, and he licks them before looking up to meet Baekhyun's gaze. "You said you wanted to talk about something?"

"Kyungsoo…" 

Kyungsoo won't stay forever. Baekhyun knows that eventually, he'll leave, because that's what guests do. Kyungsoo has stayed longer than most, but he has a life back in Seoul. Family, friends, a job, a whole existence that Baekhyun isn't at all a part of. He's not Baekhyun's to keep. 

But Baekhyun's never really felt like this before, like he'll explode if Kyungsoo doesn't touch him, and explode if he does. What Kyungsoo summons up inside of Baekhyun is not the gentle spring winds, but the more fierce gales of winter, powerful and uncompromising. Baekhyun has always been willing to take risks. _Reckless_ , as Kyungsoo would say, and then give Baekhyun one of those smirks that make Baekhyun's insides go hot.

"Yes, Baekhyun?" Kyungsoo asks, his voice cracking. Baekhyun reaches up to cup Kyungsoo's jaw, biting his lip again briefly when Kyungsoo leans into the touch.

Baekhyun's whole body is telling him to move closer to Kyungsoo, to touch more of Kyungsoo.

"Hey," Baekhyun says, gathering all his courage and leaning into Kyungsoo's space. "Don't hit me, okay?"

"I won't," Kyungsoo whispers, breath hot against Baekhyun's lips, and Baekhyun kisses him. Kyungsoo makes this tiny hiccupping sound that tugs at Baekhyun's stomach, but then his other hand, the one not on Baekhyun's thigh, comes up to tangle in his shirt, pulling him closer. 

Kyungsoo's mouth is soft, yielding. As Baekhyun tilts his head, Kyungsoo sighs, his mouth opening slightly to Baekhyun's, and his knuckles dig into Baekhyun's chest. Baekhyun pulls Kyungsoo's lower lip between his teeth as his eyes fall closed, and when Kyungsoo takes control of the kiss, sucking on Baekhyun's upper lip before licking his way into his mouth, Baekhyun groans, the tension from the past couple of days leaving him pliant in Kyungsoo's hold.

Using his free hand to balance himself, Baekhyun pulls Kyungsoo into his lap. Kyungsoo grunts before slipping both hands into Baekhyun's hair, his tongue sliding against the roof of Baekhyun's mouth. Kyungsoo's mouth is bitter with coffee, but Baekhyun doesn't even care, tilting his head back to get more of Kyungsoo's lips. With a yank at Baekhyun's hair, Kyungsoo pulls a long groan out of Baekhyun, who drops his hand from Kyungsoo's cheek to hold his waist. 

During Baekhyun's first kiss, he'd been thinking the whole time. About his breath, about where to put his hands, about whether there was too much spit or not enough. Kyungsoo doesn't give Baekhyun a chance to think. One of Kyungsoo's hands cups the back of Baekhyun's neck as the other one fists tighter in his hair, and his mouth demands all of Baekhyun's focus.

Relentless, Kyungsoo thoroughly claims every inch of Baekhyun's mouth. Baekhyun tries his best to keep up. He sits up more, so that his hands are free to wander up Kyungsoo's back, and Kyungsoo shudders when Baekhyun's hands slip up his shirt to rub up and down his sides, the skin so smooth under Baekhyun's palms.

Baekhyun's heart feels like it might burst when Kyungsoo hums into his mouth, a low pleased sound that has Baekhyun desperately trying to get closer.

Kyungsoo eases up, and Baekhyun remembers he's supposed to breathe. Separating his lips from Baekhyun's, Kyungsoo presses staccato kisses to Baekhyun's chin and cheeks and nose as Baekhyun pants for air. He drops a last kiss just above Baekhyun's lips. Whining, Baekhyun nips at Kyungsoo's lower lip, until Kyungsoo chuckles and captures his lips again.

"Is this what you wanted to talk about?" Kyungsoo murmurs into Baekhyun's cheek, and Baekhyun laughs, disbelievingly, pulling back so he can look at Kyungsoo.

His lips are swollen and pink, and his eyes are bright. His mussed hair falls across his forehead, and his cheeks are pink. Baekhyun leans forward and kisses him again, quickly, with a loud, exaggerated smacking sound. "Yeah," Baekhyun says. "I think so."

"You think?" Kyungsoo asks. He pecks the corner of Baekhyun's mouth, and then his cheeks, dragging his mouth across the skin until he gets to Baekhyun's jaw, and then he's sucking at the skin there, and Baekhyun moans, shivering as Kyungsoo bites his way down Baekhyun's neck. "You're not sure?"

"My brain is like jelly right now," admits Baekhyun, shakily, as Kyungsoo licks at the skin where his neck meets his shoulder. "All I can think about is how much I want to kiss you again."

It's Kyungsoo who laughs, this time, chuckling into the thin skin at Baekhyun's throat. "What's stopping you?" 

"I don't know," Baekhyun replies, before he lightly scratches his nails down Kyungsoo's spine.

"It's not me," Kyungsoo says, sealing their lips together again.

⚘❁⚘

Light streams in through the kitchen window as Baekhyun peels the skin off the fish with unsteady fingers.

He'd woken up this morning to Kyungsoo's face. He'd been pensive in his sleep, mouth drawn tightly and his eyebrows furrowed, and for a few, disorienting moments, Baekhyun had thought all of last night had been some strange dream: that he'd come home from the hospital and fallen asleep out here in the main room and dreamed up all the kisses he and Kyungsoo had shared. But there was the ache in his jaw and the tender feeling of his mouth telling him it hadn't been a dream, so Baekhyun had reached out and smoothed the wrinkle in Kyungsoo's brow, leaving a soft kiss just next to his ear, and gotten up.

After washing his face and brushing his teeth, he'd gone into the kitchen and put on the japgokbap to cook. Then he'd started to prepare the rest of breakfast, mixing three eggs for an omelet and pulling out fish and some of Jongdae's mom's sauce from the refrigerator. 

He doesn't add as much salt as usual, because Kyungsoo doesn't like it. He's starting to get used to food that tastes a little less like the sea, but when Kyungsoo leaves, he'll probably go right back to his high-sodium ways.

When Kyungsoo leaves. It pops the happy bubble in Baekhyun's chest, and it shouldn't, since he's always known that it would happen eventually. That his winter guest would leave, and Baekhyun would be left with more cut ties. It just… hurts more than he'd thought it would. 

He can worry about it later, when he has to.

He doesn't hear Kyungsoo come in, but he feels him approach, spinning around to look at him.

He's clean, his face freshly washed, skin pink from cool water and hair combed but not tamed. His eyes are still slightly sleep-heavy, and his mouth is bee-stung pretty from Baekhyun.

"Good morning," Baekhyun says, putting his sadder thoughts away and focusing on how nice all of Kyungsoo's attention is, as Kyungsoo rests his hands on either side of Baekhyun, hanging his fingers from the counter. There's no reason to dwell on the ticking clock when Kyungsoo is right here in front of him, soft and warm.

He kisses Baekhyun, slowly, without a hint of urgency, slipping his tongue between Baekhyun's lips. When he pulls away, Baekhyun's thoughts are as scrambled as the egg in the bowl behind him. 

"Good morning," Kyungsoo says back, and Baekhyun's hands come up to settle on Kyungsoo's hips. The juts of his hipbones fit perfectly in Baekhyun's palms.

"I…" Baekhyun rapidly blinks. Leaning back slightly, he searches Kyungsoo's face, and sighs.

"Are you sure this is okay?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun licks at the corner of his mouth, tasting toothpaste. Kyungsoo has him caged against the counter, and Baekhyun had been feeling cold, alone in the kitchen, but now he's hot, Kyungsoo's body heat bleeding into him and excitement boiling in his belly. "Kissing you."

It's more than okay. Baekhyun can't think of anything he'd rather do, right now, than kiss Kyungsoo. He drags one hand up from Kyungsoo's hip to his stomach, and continues upward, across Kyungsoo's chest and clavicles until he can curl his fingers around the back of Kyungsoo's neck. Kyungsoo's skin is still sticky from sleep, and his hair tickles Baekhyun's fingers. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Kyungsoo's eyes flicker down, before rising back up to hold Baekhyun's purposefully. "Have you ever been attracted a man before, Baekhyun?"

Chewing on his lip, Baekhyun slides his fingers up into Kyungsoo's hair. "I never really thought about it," he replies. "But yeah, I think I have been. It's just not the sort of thing I ever really tried to figure out, before." He smiles at Kyungsoo, curling strands of soft black around his fingers. "Never really had any reason to, right?"

"It doesn't bother you?" Kyungsoo asks. "The fact that I'm a man?" He emphasizes man, like it's going to change Baekhyun's mind. It won't. After all, it's not like Baekhyun's feelings are worth less because Kyungsoo is male. 

Caught up in his thoughts, he almost misses the anxious shift of Kyungsoo's expression. But he uses his hand still on Kyungsoo's hip to pull him in closer, until Kyungsoo's crotch is pushing into his own, the denim of Baekhyun's jeans rubbing against the nylon of Kyungsoo's track pants. 

"Honestly," Baekhyun says, resolutely keeping his tone flippant, "Chanyeol seems to think that bonobos view screwing other dude-bonobos as a status symbol."

Kyungsoo stares at Baekhyun intensely, and Baekhyun grins at him, hoping his whole heart isn't in his eyes, before swooping forward and kissing Kyungsoo deeply, until the tension melts out from Kyungsoo's back and shoulders. He pulls Kyungsoo in closer at the neck, and Kyungsoo lets him, moaning into the kiss before using both hands to lightly push Baekhyun back.

"You're so…" Kyungsoo makes an irritated noise, and Baekhyun laughs, feeling light. "You should think things like this through."

"I'm fairly sure I've been thinking it through with my gut for the past two months," Baekhyun says. "It's just that my brain took some time to catch up."

"Unsurprising," Kyungsoo says, with a smirk, teasing making his eyes bright like stars.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Baekhyun asks, and moves to kiss Kyungsoo again, because he can, but the front door creaks, and Kyungsoo slips away, out of Baekhyun's hold, as it slams shut again. His arms feel empty, and his front feels cold.

"Baekhyunnie!" Jongdae yells, before appearing in the kitchen. "Oh good, I didn't miss breakfast." He walks up to Baekhyun and peers over his shoulder. "Eggs?"

"Yeah," says Baekhyun. "Eggs and fish." He swallows, and then smiles at Jongdae in welcome. His mouth tastes like Kyungsoo, but Kyungsoo is even further away now, out of his reach. 

Jongdae looks between them. "Did I interrupt a conversation or something?"

Baekhyun scratches his stomach. "Well," he starts, but Kyungsoo runs a hand through his hair, holding the longer pieces in the front out of his face. The faded black of his stretched out shirt is more obvious in this light. "Kind—"

"Actually," Kyungsoo says. "I have to make a few calls, so you should eat without me."

"What?" 

Kyungsoo cuts his gaze at Baekhyun, and then he smiles, softly. "I received a few e-mails from Joonmyun-hyung yesterday," he says. "I told him I'd call him back this morning. Today is Monday, so it might be about work. I don't want to let it go too late or he'll be busy."

"Oh, yeah, okay," Baekhyun says, as Jongdae goes into the refrigerator, pulling out the water pitcher, and then opens the cabinet to get himself a cup. "I'll see you this afternoon?"

"Yes," says Kyungsoo. "We could take a walk?" 

"If it's nice enough," Baekhyun says, "I'll take you up on the cliffs."

"It's really nice today," Jongdae says, sipping his water and trying to turn on the stove. It won't start. Baekhyun bumps Jongdae out of the way with his hip and uses just the right amount of pressure to get the gas to start. "It's even sunny."

"The cliffs it is," Baekhyun says, turning back to Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo licks his lips, and Baekhyun zeroes in on the motion, following Kyungsoo's tongue with his eyes until it's back in his mouth. "We can go on the really slippery dangerous ones." His voice is uneven, and Baekhyun hopes Jongdae doesn't notice.

"I'm not diving off them," Kyungsoo warns, and Jongdae laughs. "So don't get any ideas."

"I would never," Baekhyun says, as Jongdae throws an arm over Baekhyun's shoulder, pulling him in close. "Jongdae's the mean one."

"Yeah right," Jongdae says, "I seem to remember _you_ being the one who made our sixth grade teacher think the cleaning closet was haunted," and Baekhyun finally breaks eye-contact with Kyungsoo to punch him in the shoulder. 

"You made Gu-ssaem drink baby frogs," Baekhyun retaliates, and Jongdae shrieks _"That was an accident! He wasn't supposed to _drink_ them!"_ as Baekhyun starts to poke at him ruthlessly while the skillet heats behind them.

When the commotion has died down, Baekhyun looks up to find Kyungsoo has already left the kitchen. "He could have eaten breakfast first," Baekhyun says.

"The atmosphere was kind of strange this morning," says Jongdae, pouring oil into the skillet, "when I walked in. Were you guys arguing?"

"I don't think Kyungsoo argues," Baekhyun replies. "I think he raises his eyebrow until you see it his way." He laughs to himself, and Jongdae looks at him sharply.

"You shouldn't get so attached to him." 

"What are you talking about?" Baekhyun laughs, curling his hand around the skillet handle as Jongdae pours in the eggs. "I get attached to everyone."

"There's a reason I got jealous because of him, Byun Baekhyunnie," Jongdae says, taking the spatula from the dish rack. "So what's the deal?"

"Is that why you're here this morning?" Baekhyun says, ignoring Jongdae's question. "You never come up here for breakfast. The only times I see you before noon are when you spend the night on game days."

"Can't I just want to spend the day with my best friend?" Jongdae asks, leaning his head on Baekhyun's shoulder. Baekhyun chuckles, letting his cheek rest in Jongdae's hair. 

"Sure you can," says Baekhyun. "In fact, he's probably quite happy to spend the day with you too."

"We still haven't written out our predictions for pre-season trades. I think KIA is getting a few of your outfielders."

"No way. Where are you even getting your info?"

"From the internet," says Jongdae. "You know, that thing regular people use on their phones. " He pulls the skinned fish out of the sauce and puts it in a bowl, taking it over to the kitchen table. "You wouldn't know about that, considering your phone was made when dinosaurs still roamed the earth."

"You're an asshole," Baekhyun says, laughing and throwing a dishtowel at Jongdae, who just manages to catch it.

"That's why we belong together," Jongdae says. "Two of a kind."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, tasting the japgokbap. "Two of a kind."

He and Jongdae spend the morning hunched over Baekhyun's laptop, researching draft picks for the upcoming KBO season, playing videogames on Baekhyun's old GameCube, and shoving each other around. Baekhyun doesn't remember the last time they hung out like this, just the two of them, making a mess of the room without even moving and getting tangled in the controller cords playing the second Timesplitters game.

Jongdae has to leave at lunch time, to work at the restaurant, and Baekhyun tackles him at the door, hugging him from behind. "More time like this," he says into Jongdae's neck, and Jongdae pats his arm.

"I had fun too," he says, shrugging on his coat. "I'll see you soon?"

"Yeah, I'll drop by the restaurant tomorrow," Baekhyun promises, watching Jongdae walk down the side path to the village, trampling on dried branches that have fallen from the bushes. 

Kyungsoo returns half an hour later, his phone in both hands and his cheeks red. 

Baekhyun has just finished stacking the cushions up in the corner, the magazines righted and the GameCube packed away until next time. He's watering the plants, now, making sure the brittle chasteberry plant has its roots sunk in moist enough soil. "Did you get in contact with your friends?" he asks, wiping his hands on the edge of his shirt.

"I did," Kyungsoo says. "Well, with Joonmyun-hyung, for an hour, and then I called my mom. She kept me on the phone for a long time, talking about how happy she was to hear my voice."

"You have a really nice voice," Baekhyun says. "I could listen to you talk forever."

Kyungsoo sets down his phone on the table. "Really?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "You do this thing, sometimes, where your voice goes all deep." He fidgets, fussing with the sleeves of his shirt. "It's so…"

"Sometimes," Kyungsoo says, "your voice gets on my nerves." He says it flippantly, and Baekhyun knows he's only joking. "Sometimes, though…"

"Sometimes I'm saying interesting things, and you can overlook that?" Baekhyun rubs his neck. "Or sometimes you like _my_ voice, too?"

"What do you think?" Kyungsoo asks. It's in his lower register, and from the look in his eyes, he's doing it on purpose.

"I think," Baekhyun says, "that we should go for our walk."

"I'm going to charge my phone," Kyungsoo says, and then he hesitates. Baekhyun's surprised to see him curling in, kind of, in his spiky hedgehog maneuver. "Then we can go."

Baekhyun takes Kyungsoo out on the cliff walk he'd spared him, that first week. It feels like that was forever ago, even if it's only been two months. So much has changed, since Kyungsoo appeared late at night on Baekhyun's doorstep, looking so tired and old. 

Kyungsoo keeps away from the edge, smiling at Baekhyun as Baekhyun taunts him, invites him a little closer. "From back there," Baekhyun says, "you can't see the foam." He reaches out and takes Kyungsoo's hand, linking their fingers. It's light outside, not dark, but they're alone, and Kyungsoo doesn't pull away. With their arms swinging between them, they walk between the rocks, Kyungsoo half a step behind.

"In the summer," Baekhyun says, "I like to walk out here. You can see all the fishing boats on the water, and the haenyeo diving."

"I'm sure it's amazing. The view."

"It is. You can come out here and sit on the rocks and watch the water. The wind is gentler, in the summer, just strong enough to mess up your hair and keep your clothes from sticking to your skin, on the hottest days."

"I never thought I'd like it here so much," Kyungsoo says, looking out at the waves. "I've always liked the city. I like that everyone minds their own business, and that everything is always open. I like people watching in cafes in the morning, on my way to work. I like how noisy it is, because even when you're alone, it feels like you aren't."

Baekhyun drops Kyungsoo's hand, and starts to play with Kyungsoo's scarf, the one he'd bought at the Dragon's Head Coast, soft navy wool that catches on Kyungsoo's lips. Kyungsoo stares at him, as he unrolls the wool, covering more of Kyungsoo's neck as the wind starts to pick up. "There's a ‘but'?"

"But I do like it here," Kyungsoo says. "I like sleeping to the wind in the trees and waking up to the ocean. I like the salt in the air. I like the snow that stays white." He smiles at Baekhyun, full, heartshaped, sincere. "It's beautiful out here." He lowers his eyelids, until he's peering up at Baekhyun from beneath his lashes. "The company leaves something to be desired, but…"

Baekhyun cups both of Kyungsoo's cheeks in his hands and kisses him. Kyungsoo's surprised noise is swallowed up by Baekhyun's questing mouth. Overhead, the seagulls make noises, and a cruiser's horn sounds a warning to another ship. All Baekhyun really pays attention to, though, is the sigh Kyungsoo makes into Baekhyun's mouth, and Kyungsoo's hands grabbing at Baekhyun's coat as Baekhyun coaxes Kyungsoo's lips to part for him.

"What was that for?" Kyungsoo asks. His eyes are bright, and one of his hands has released Baekhyun's coat to touch his mouth, pushing at his lips as if to make up for the absence of Baekhyun's.

"When you remember Jejudo," Baekhyun says, "I want you to remember that, too, right along with the waves and the wind and the rocks."

Kyungsoo doesn't say anything. He does, however, grab Baekhyun's hand again, and lace their fingers back together. He lets go when they get back to the edge of the village.

They eat ramyun for dinner, cooking the noodles in a big pot Baekhyun hasn't used in forever, and eating them in the living room. It's almost New Years', January 1st, and all the channels are in line to play their end of year music specials. They play one in the background as Kyungsoo tries to teach Baekhyun about scaling, a set of plans rolled out on the living room floor away from the empty ramyun pot. Baekhyun is more interested in the curl of concentration at the corners of Kyungsoo's mouth than he is in how to interpret the plans, but he humors Kyungsoo anyway, because he likes the way Kyungsoo's voice gets stronger, more passionate, as he talks about building safer apartments.

After they wash the pot, Kyungsoo confiscating it from Baekhyun halfway through the process because Baekhyun keeps splashing water everywhere, Baekhyun goes to take a shower. He washes himself thoroughly, scrubbing at the backs of his arms and trying to rub away today's sweat and grime. 

When he gets out of the shower, he crosses the hallway to his room. He pulls on a pair of underwear and then starts to dry his hair.

"Do you always just walk naked through the hallways?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun drops his towel in surprise.

He's standing in the doorway to Baekhyun's room with a cup of water in his hand. "What's the worst thing that could happen?" Baekhyun asks. It's not the first time he's been less than completely clothed around Kyungsoo, but it's different now. Ignoring the flush that suffuses his chest and climbs all the way up his cheeks, Baekhyun bends down to pick up his towel. When he straightens again, Kyungsoo has walked all the way into the room. He's freshly showered too, Baekhyun notices. His hair is wet and has dripped onto his shirt, leaving the light gray fabric damp. His feet are bare on the cool floor. "I didn't know you owned any clothes that aren't black."

"I can be adventurous, too," Kyungsoo replies, and Baekhyun chuckles, some of his embarrassment fading as Kyungsoo picks up Baekhyun's ‘ _Learn Chinese!_ ' book from his desk. "How's this going?"

"Not too well. I guess I'm just not a language guy."

"I would think you'd want to be able to talk in as many languages as possible," Kyungsoo says, as Baekhyun rubs his chest with his towel. "Reach a wider audience." He looks over to Baekhyun, and his voice hitches on the last word. 

"It just doesn't make sense in my head," Baekhyun replies, as Kyungsoo sets the book back down, squaring it with the edge of the desk. His eyes drop from Baekhyun's face, maybe to where Baekhyun's hand is holding the towel, and then lower, and Baekhyun swallows. "Kyungsoo?"

"Can I…" Kyungsoo reaches out and grabs Baekhyun's arm, pulling him in. He leans down and licks at the skin just above Baekhyun's collarbone, catching a drop of water, and Baekhyun shudders. "Is this crossing a line?" Kyungsoo whispers, into Baekhyun's neck, and Baekhyun drops his towel again, this time on purpose. Kyungsoo's hands are steady on Baekhyun's waist, and Baekhyun doesn't know what to do with his own, one gravitating automatically to Kyungsoo's hair to sink into it. It's so thick between his fingers.

"No," Baekhyun says, his breath getting stuck in his chest, "it's okay."

"Good," Kyungsoo says, lips tickling where they drag across his clavicle, and then he's kissing his way up until he finally gets to Baekhyun's mouth. 

Whenever Kyungsoo kisses Baekhyun, Baekhyun feels like he's the only thing in the world Kyungsoo notices. He applies the same intensity and focus to stealing Baekhyun's wits that he applies to poring over his plans. It's addictive, the way he makes Baekhyun the only thing that matters when their mouths are connected, his tongue mapping out Baekhyun's mouth thoroughly and precisely, his fingers digging into Baekhyun's waist. 

He backs Baekhyun into the wall, and Baekhyun grunts as his shoulder blades dig in, but then they're tripping over Baekhyun's bedding and sliding down into it, Kyungsoo refusing to release Baekhyun's mouth even to move him. Baekhyun grabs at Kyungsoo's arms, anything to anchor himself as Kyungsoo kisses him harder.

"Okay?" Kyungsoo asks, breaking away, and he waits for Baekhyun's "yeah" before he shoves him down into the blankets, still unmade from two days ago. Baekhyun's head lands on his pillow. Kyungsoo is on top of him, heavy, his ass pressed to Baekhyun's crotch. Baekhyun looks up at Kyungsoo with wide eyes, and Kyungsoo smirks at him. 

Dropping forward, Kyungsoo brushes his lips across Baekhyun's pulse point. Baekhyun whimpers, clutching at Kyungsoo's shirt. "That's my favorite," Kyungsoo says, rolling his hips down, and Baekhyun is on fire.

"What?" He licks at his lips, and Kyungsoo kisses them, like Baekhyun had given him an invitation.

"That's when I like your voice best," Kyungsoo says, when he breaks the kiss. His words blow hot on Baekhyun's chin. "You make those noises when you sleep, too."

Baekhyun meets Kyungsoo's gaze and bites his lip. Kyungsoo swallows, and his hips shift. It makes Baekhyun dizzy, that Kyungsoo reacts to him the same way Baekhyun reacts to Kyungsoo. That Kyungsoo might be feeling a fraction of the want that Baekhyun does right now, with Kyungsoo's weight on top of him. 

He doesn't have a ton of experience at this kind of thing. Oh sure, he's kissed girls, before. He'd kissed Jinri in his third year of high school, back when they'd both been way too curious about how the whole thing worked. Baekhyun had thought, back then, that the whole kissing thing was overrated, just two pairs of wet lips moving together, slimy and awkward. He'd learned otherwise in high school, of course, but Baekhyun had never really _liked_ anyone enough to get this close. No one had ever liked him enough, either, maybe.

But Kyungsoo does. Kyungsoo's hard, his cock against Baekhyun's as he grinds down, and Baekhyun's whole body is tingling, like he'd been dropped into the winter ocean and he's just now starting to heat up again, blood rushing throughout his body so hot and fierce it's almost painful.

"You moan so much in your sleep," Kyungsoo says, after he's kissed Baekhyun again, his tongue sliding against the edges of Baekhyun's teeth, "and cling, fuck, Baekhyun."

"Does it turn you on?" Baekhyun asks, aiming for flirtatious but winding up with breathless as Kyungsoo licks at the shell of his ear. His hips are insistently rocking into Baekhyun's now, and Baekhyun reciprocates, tiny whines that would normally be embarrassing escaping his mouth as Kyungsoo sucks insistently at a sensitive spot just behind his ear.

The rub of Kyungsoo's sweats against the cotton of Baekhyun's underwear. Kyungsoo's low moans, bitten off by Kyungsoo sinking his teeth into Baekhyun's shoulder. The dampness of his skin, from the shower and from exertion as his balls tighten, everything coiling up just below his navel and shooting down the fronts of his thighs. "Kyungsoo, I'm—"

It's all more than enough to send Baekhyun over the edge, the coil finally releasing as Kyungsoo murmurs something unintelligible in a husky, low voice into the corner of Baekhyun's mouth. Kyungsoo kisses Baekhyun through it, biting and nipping at Baekhyun's lips until his own hips slow, his own peak passing more quietly than Baekhyun's. Frantic kisses slow to lingering ones, and Baekhyun can feel an ache in his jaw and a numbness to his lips.

Kyungsoo rolls off him, to the side, fitting next to him easily in the mess of bedding. "Ah," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo chuckles, throwing an arm around Baekhyun's waist and holding him fast there, like Baekhyun's going to get up when his knees are water.

"Still okay?"

"More than okay." Come is sticky and cooling in his underwear, but Baekhyun is too lethargic to move, letting Kyungsoo hold onto him. He really, really likes that Kyungsoo wants to hold on to him. "You never would have struck me as a cuddler," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo glares at him, lightly kneeing Baekhyun in the shin.

"Shut up," Kyungsoo says, ears going pink. "You're warm."

"So you're just using me for my body," Baekhyun teases, turning onto his side so he can see Kyungsoo's face more easily. Kyungsoo smiles at him, and dips his fingers into the hollow of Baekhyun's collarbones.

"Something like that," Kyungsoo replies. His tone is… it's so soft.

"Earlier," Baekhyun says, drowsily, draping a leg across both of Kyungsoo's, curling into him, "why did you pull away when you heard the door?" 

Kyungsoo stiffens, and Baekhyun runs his hand up and down Kyungsoo's spine, his hand taking the fabric of his shirt with him with every upward motion, and then pushing it back with every downward stroke. Kyungsoo eases into Baekhyun's touch.

"Because you were going to kiss me," Kyungsoo says, finally. "I didn't… want Jongdae to see."

Baekhyun, eyes half closed, watches as Kyungsoo sucks his pink lower lip into his mouth. "Why?"

"You live here," Kyungsoo says. "If people take it badly, I can leave, but you… you live here."

"Oh," Baekhyun says.

"It's hard," Kyungsoo says, "liking men." His hand slips up Baekhyun's side, along his ribs. "I don't want to make things tough for you."

"I see," replies Baekhyun, closing his eyes. _"You shouldn't get so attached,"_ says Jongdae's voice in his head, and Baekhyun turns his face so his nose is buried in Kyungsoo's hair.  



	4. Chapter 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun writes an e-mail to Yixing in the morning. _Are you still thinking of coming in the spring?_ he writes at the end of it, and then sends it before he can convince himself that it sounds too needy.

It's one thing to pretend to be whiny and demanding, and Baekhyun's fine playing that up, but it's another for him to actually be that way. Baekhyun is self-sufficient. That's not going to change just because his life seems to be shifting and realigning itself around him.

Kyungsoo has work to do, sitting down to type painstakingly slowly at his laptop, with two fingers, using the index finger from each hand, the same way he scratches his scalp. Baekhyun turns on the TV and plans to rot in front of it for the day, to keep himself from distracting Kyungsoo.

Jongdae shows up unannounced sometime after eleven, and makes himself comfortable.

"Why are you here all the time now?" Baekhyun asks Jongdae, who is sitting next to Baekhyun on the floor, his legs crossed as he eats onion straw chips from the green crinkly bag. "Not that I don't want you to be, I'm just surprised."

Jongdae has been by four times this week, since Monday. He hadn't come on New Years', because he'd been in Seogwipo with Soojung, but every other day this week he's spent at least an hour with Baekhyun. It had almost felt strange not to see Jongdae on December 31st, but Kyungsoo had kissed him as the countdown on the radio had announced midnight, holding on bruising-tight to Baekhyun's hips, and Baekhyun hadn't missed him, really. He'd wondered, wryly, if this was what it meant to grow up.

"I want to see you more," says Jongdae. "Is that a crime?"

"It's a crime that you're eating all my junk food." Baekhyun snatches the onion straws. Jongdae whines, and Kyungsoo, who is typing diligently on his laptop ("Just some things for work," he'd explained earlier, and Baekhyun had stopped prodding him to watch TV) pauses, and looks up.

"As if you'll ever run out," Kyungsoo says, and Jongdae laughs. Kyungsoo offers up a small grin at Baekhyun, and Baekhyun wants to kiss him again so he looks away. He feels like he's in high school all over again, basically.

"Exactly," Jongdae says, taking the bag back. "Your addiction to feeding yourself crap will ensure that your cabinets are never empty."

Baekhyun's response falls by the wayside at the sound of a car approaching up the driveway. He gets up from his cushion and goes into the hallway.

"It's probably just Chanyeol," Jongdae calls out to him, and Baekhyun narrows his eyes.

"No way Chanyeol's old truck wouldn't make way more engine noise," Baekhyun responds. All he can hear is the crunching gravel. Chanyeol's truck huffs and puffs its way up the guesthouse driveway, every time. "This sounds more like Kyungsoo's car."

He opens the front door just as a white car pulls in to park next to Kyungsoo's Lexus. Someone comes up behind him, and it's Kyungsoo, with his eyes narrowed. The driver's side door opens, and a man in a heavy wool coat steps out, wearing sunglasses and a wristwatch that gleams.

"That's Joonmyun-hyung," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun's jaw drops in surprise, slightly, before he can catch it. Kyungsoo squeezes past Baekhyun, out the door, stopping on the front step to pull his heels into his shoes with a hooked finger. Then he's walking out to the car. "What are you doing here?"

"We tried to call." The man has a really gentle voice, almost sing-song, and he smiles immediately.

"We?" Kyungsoo asks, and the passenger side door opens to reveal a pretty tall, athletic man who looks a couple of years younger than Kyungsoo. He has hair that flops into his eyes and and a pouting mouth. His jacket is leather. "Ah, both of you. I told you I don't get signal here," Kyungsoo says, and the one he'd called Joonmyun-hyung smiles at him sweetly.

"I thought that was your way of telling me to stop checking in on you," he says, reaching out to cup Kyungsoo's shoulder.

"If I wanted that," Kyungsoo says, shivering, since he hadn't put on a coat, "I would have said so directly."

"Kyungsoo-hyung doesn't really talk around things like that," says the taller one. His voice is deeper than Baekhyun had expected, and he gives a shy smile that makes him look sweet and soft. Puppyish. "Sorry for arriving out of nowhere. We've been worried about you. Joonmyun-hyung corralled me at the office to ask me if I'd make the drive down here with him."

Kyungsoo stares at them both, with his arms crossed, but then he smiles, a tiny little one that has the tall one relaxing and Joonmyun turning to Baekhyun. "You must be Byun-ssi," he says. "You wouldn't happen to have two rooms for the night, would you? We can only stay one."

"Sure thing," Baekhyun says, walking down from the step and taking Joonmyun's outstretched hand, as the man shakes their clasped hands and bows at the same time, back in a perfect line. He looks like some kind of drama heir, and Baekhyun has the urge to bow back. "But, ah, it's Baekhyun. Just Baekhyun."

"I'm Jongin," says the other, the sweet smile replaced with a hesitant glower. He snaps nervously at the collection of rubber wristbands on his arm, in black and purple and Livestrong yellow. Baekhyun hadn't known people still wore those.

"These are a couple of my friends," Kyungsoo says. "Here to rescue me from the clutches of an island vacation, apparently."

"You're not really the vacation type," Joonmyun says. "We had to come investigate." He drapes an arm around Kyungsoo's shoulders, and Kyungsoo leans into him, easy and casual. Baekhyun watches the interaction carefully, shoving his hands into his pockets and sucking on his upper lip.

Jongdae finally comes out, hands on his hips. "More winter guests, Baekhyunnie?"

Baekhyun looks back at him and shrugs. Then he faces Joonmyun and Jongin, with a welcoming grin. "Why don't you two come inside?"

Jongdae goes to heat water for tea when Baekhyun gives him a pleading look, and Baekhyun gives Joonmyun and Jongin a quick tour of the guesthouse. Kyungsoo trails behind them, still looking unsure about his friends being here, but Joonmyun falls back and pulls him into quiet conversation, and soon Kyungsoo is smiling slightly and nodding as Baekhyun shows Jongin how the shower works.

Jongin had seemed extremely reluctant to speak to Baekhyun at first, but slowly warms up, saying what he needs to and making odd jokes every now and then that make Baekhyun laugh. His laugh is really silly and cute, and loud, and Baekhyun has to fight the urge to ruffle his hair..

"This is so different," Jongin says. "I'd thought, at first, when Kyungsoo called from Jeju of all places, he'd have checked into a resort or something."

"We mostly get hikers," Baekhyun says. "Backpackers. Not wayward architects."

Jongin smiles at him, finally taking off his sunglasses and hanging them from the neck of his sweater. "Hyung told me this is his mother's hometown."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "My best friend's mom says Kyungsoo looks a lot like her."

"She does," Jongin says. "Seungsoo, that's Kyungsoo-hyung's brother, he looks more like their dad."

"You were friends with Kyungsoo in high school, right?" Baekhyun asks, and Jongin nods. "One of his international school friends."

"Kyungsoo-hyung used to be even smaller," Jongin says. "Really small. Hallway locker sized. And he had a bowl cut."

"You weren't that tall yet yourself," Kyungsoo says, interrupting them. "Don't say weird things to Baekhyun."

"I'm imagining fourteen year old Kyungsoo now," Baekhyun says, maneuvering so he's behind Kyungsoo, in the perfect position to dig his chin into Kyungsoo's shoulder. "With your bowl haircut and _Prince of Tennis_ comics."

"I hear buzzing," Kyungsoo says, "but there usually aren't any bees in the winter."

Baekhyun cackles right in Kyungsoo's ear, and Kyungsoo shrugs him off, playfully glaring at him. Still laughing, Baekhyun completely backs off from Kyungsoo, turning to smile at Kyungsoo and Jongin. "I don't know when you ate last, on your drive down, but I know a great place to get pork belly for dinner."

He takes them back into the kitchen. There are six chairs around the table, but Baekhyun can't remember the last time he'd used more than four.

Kyungsoo immediately goes to the cabinet to take down the mugs, reaching up for them with a familiarity that makes Baekhyun feel like Kyungsoo lives here with him. Kyungsoo pushes up onto the balls of his feet to reach the top shelf, and Baekhyun automatically steadies him, hands on Kyungsoo's hips, fingers stretching around to his belly. Kyungsoo's shirt has lifted, so Baekhyun's fingers hit bare skin. Goosebumps pop up under Baekhyun's palms. "Careful," Baekhyun whispers, into Kyungsoo's ear, and takes a mug, stepping away before anyone notices.

Jongdae and Joonmyun fall into easy conversation, the two of them going back and forth about math, of all things, as Joonmyun explains something about his job to an absolutely enraptured Jongdae.

Baekhyun draws Jongin into conversation, peppering him with tiny questions about the drive down. "We've been having nice weather for winter, this week," Baekhyun says. "So it shouldn't have been too bad."

"It was sleeting in Seoul when we left," Jongin says. "This winter weather is so moderate."

"I'm getting spoiled," Kyungsoo says. "When I get back to Seoul, I'm going to turn my heated floors up until April."

"Once we got down south, some, though, it was really nice."

"My drive was nice, too," Kyungsoo says. "When I could think about it." Baekhyun puts a hand on Kyungsoo's thigh under the table. He curls his fingers, so that his nails can scratch just above Kyungsoo's knee, through the denim, and Kyungsoo leans into him. "Baekhyun and I drove around the island last week. Even the snow was pretty."

Baekhyun remembers curling up with Kyungsoo in bed and watching the snow out the window, and he looks over at Jongdae to hide the heat that rushes to his cheeks. "Yeah, it was a good trip."

"Our drive would have been perfect if Joonmyun weren't trying to learn Japanese," Jongin says. "We listened to Pimsleur tapes the entire drive."

"Hyung mentioned that in an e-mail last week," Kyungsoo says. "Something about a new project with a design team from Japan."

"I had enough of that back when I had to take two or three immersion classes a day," Jongin says. "It feels like freshman year all over again."

"I think the refresher will come in handy," Kyungsoo says, wrapping his hand around Baekhyun's wrist, his thumb rubbing in slow circles on the bone. Baekhyun tightens his hold on Kyungsoo's knee. "You'll be thankful for the reminder of polite forms."

"I can't even learn Chinese," Baekhyun replies, studying Jongin more carefully. He looks again, at Jongin's expensive sunglasses where they hang innocently from his neck, and at his oversized, pricey watch. He's put together in ways Baekhyun isn't, tacky wristbands or no, and Baekhyun thinks of Kyungsoo's suit, when he'd first arrived. He shakes away those thoughts for now, and smiles at Jongin. "I'm impressed."

"You're trying to learn Chinese?" Jongin's hands twist together aimlessly. "Why?"

Baekhyun considers telling Jongin that studying another language makes him feel like he's expanding out beyond Jeolbyeog-ri, spreading his arms as far as they'll go toward other places. It seems out of place, though. It's something Baekhyun would only tell Jongdae, late at night, with the lights out. "Well, one of my favorite people in the world speaks Chinese," Baekhyun replies. "As his native language. So I've been trying to study it, but I'm not so good at learning from books."

"The best way to learn a language is to practice it," Jongin says, and Baekhyun shivers as Kyungsoo's hand drags up his forearm. "Immersion is pretty much the only way I learned English doing IB."

Kyungsoo snorts. "Your mother threw you into the river without a single swimming lesson when she sent you to Yokohama alone, Jonginnie."

"That's why I was lucky to have you," Jongin says, earnestly, and Kyungsoo smiles at him. Baekhyun slides his fingers around to the inside of Kyungsoo's thigh.

"That's how Yixing-hyung learned, too," Baekhyun says. "But I can't exactly go to China just to learn Chinese."

"Why not?" Jongin asks. His hands swallow his cup, red porcelain of a mug Baekhyun hasn't used in years peeking out between his fingers.

"I don't know," Baekhyun says, squirming in place as Kyungsoo tickles the inside of his elbow. He accidentally kicks Jongdae, who kicks him back without even interrupting the flow of his conversation with Joonmyun, and Baekhyun winces at the stinging in his calf. "It's more that I can't leave the guesthouse. I'm the only person left to take care of it, and sometimes…" Baekhyun turns to Kyungsoo and winks, "people show up unexpectedly, and they need a place to stay." He grabs Kyungsoo's hand, finally, and winds it with his own, both of their hands in his lap. "Someday I'm going to go visit him, though."

"You should," Kyungsoo says, quietly. "You should come to Seoul, too." He catches Baekhyun's gaze and holds it.

"Are you going to take me everywhere, city boy?" Baekhyun licks his lips, letting go of Kyungsoo's hand and averting his eyes.

"Maybe I'll conveniently ditch you at a subway station," Kyungsoo says. "And see how adventurous you really are."

"As long as I have a helmet I'll be fine, right?" Baekhyun jokes, and then he gets up, hanging the handles of the empty tea mugs from his fingers to carry them to the sink. "If we leave now, we'll have enough time for Jongdae and I to show you around the village before dinner."

"How did I get roped into this?" Jongdae says. "I was just here for the free chips."

"Now I'm putting you to work," Baekhyun says. "Do you guys have bags? I can get you set up in rooms, if you want to change."

Jongin and Joonmyun go with Jongdae out to the car while Baekhyun goes up to the front cabinet, unlocking it and pulling out the netbook and the guest log, carrying them stacked with both hands to the welcome desk.

Kyungsoo follows him, and neatens the stacks of paper on the desk as Baekhyun plugs the netbook charger into the wall. "I didn't know they were coming," Kyungsoo says, when Baekhyun opens his netbook and presses the power button. "I would have warned you."

"Warned me?" Baekhyun asks. "They seem nice."

"They are nice," Kyungsoo says, strain visible around his mouth and at the corners of his eyes. "Nicer than I am." He sets down the last stack of mail Baekhyun Really Should Open, and walks around behind the desk, so he can stand next to Baekhyun as he watches the netbook boot up. "I feel like I've been living inside a snowglobe, and they've come and cracked it." He rests his head on Baekhyun's shoulder. "Or like I'd stepped into a completely new world, but now the old one has come parading in behind me, following the path I took."

"You wish they'd warned _you_ , then," Baekhyun says, turning to watch Kyungsoo run his fingers along the smooth line of the handmade desk. "This isn't a new world for me, this is my everyday world. They're just more guests." He wraps an arm around Kyungsoo's waist, keeping his eye on the door. "People come and go a lot from my snowglobe. I don't really need warning anymore. I expect it. Check in, check out."

"I know," Kyungsoo says. "I almost hoped—"

Kyungsoo cuts off his sentence as the door slams open, and Jongdae comes walking through the door. Baekhyun quickly drops his arm and starts looking behind the desk counter for a pen, soon finding one.

Joonmyun is right behind him, carrying a small black overnight bag with metal detailing. He walks up to the welcome desk and gives Baekhyun another gentle smile. "Officially checking us in?"

"I have to be thorough," Baekhyun says. "Otherwise taxes can be complicated."

"I was reading about Jeju's property laws the other day for work," Joonmyun says. "Our firm is doing a project down here with a Japanese company at the end of the year. It's all very complicated."

"It is," Baekhyun says. "I don't really understand it, but I send it off to someone else when it comes time to do taxes. My uncle knows a guy who specializes in that sort of thing, so I just have to keep really good records for him." He hands Joonmyun a pen and Kyungsoo taps the guest log when Joonmyun looks from the pen to the netbook.

"A log?" Joonmyun asks.

"That's tradition," Baekhyun says.

"Baekhyun is a big believer in tradition," Kyungsoo adds, and he starts to reach up for Baekhyun's face, maybe to smooth his thumb across Baekhyun's pout, but then he remembers himself, letting his hand fall, and Baekhyun releases all the air in his lungs in a whoosh.

"His grandmother always did it this way," Jongdae says. "The computer records were all Baekhyun. He occasionally has good ideas."

"Occasionally," Kyungsoo agrees, stepping out from behind the counter and walking over to Jongin, who has two bags instead of just the one. One looks like a laptop case. Kyungsoo takes that one from him, and Jongin immediately takes out his phone. He frowns at it. "No signal," Kyungsoo reminds him, and Jongin puts his phone back in his pocket, looking a little lost at the very idea of being disconnected. "There's wifi, though, just search for it."

"You're in room 5," Baekhyun says, pulling the key off the ring and handing it to Joonmyun. "I'm going to put Jongin in 6."

"Perfect," Joonmyun says. "Thank you for accommodating us on short notice, Baekhyun-ssi."

"Not any shorter notice than Kyungsoo, here," Jongdae says, taking Joonmyun's bag. "I'll show you exactly which one is 5."

After Jongin has signed the log book, drawing a cute little face and exclamation points just underneath Joonmyun's dark narrow letters, and put his things away, Baekhyun and Jongdae walk them back down to the village. They take the long way, because Baekhyun doesn't want either of Kyungsoo's friends to mess up their shiny shoes.

"We got lost," Joonmyun says to Baekhyun, as they walk ahead of Jongin, who has lit up a cigarette and smokes as they go, "trying to find your guesthouse."

"Lost signal on your GPS?" Baekhyun asks, and Joonmyun smiles.

"Happen a lot?" Joonmyun shuffles when he walks. It's really cute, and Baekhyun grins at the man.

"Often enough," Baekhyun says. "There used to be a, well, a rumor, I guess, that the guest house was haunted. Back before my brother and I moved in, my grandparents were the only people left up there, and while all the older people in the village knew them, the kids just knew that the place was always full of strangers, and that at night the wind made noises running through the wood slats near the roof."

"Kids are always more willing to believe in things like that," Joonmyun says. "Stuff like ghosts and hauntings."

"I think," Baekhyun replies, "you'll find that the adults around here are likely to believe a lot of that stuff too." Pulling on the brim of his baseball cap, he grins at Joonmyun, his eyes crinkling up. "Since it's a dead zone for cell phone service, you'll never be able to call for help if it really _is_ haunted, right?"

Joonmyun shivers. "Ghost stories are my least favorite thing," he says. "You'd better be kidding about that."

"I am," Baekhyun says, winking. "Probably. Kyungsoo seems all right, doesn't he?"

"Yes," Joonmyun says. "He seems more than all right."

Baekhyun takes his time pointing out different places in town. It's beautiful right now, the sun setting and bathing the whole village in a soft glow. "The buildings are all so low," Jongin says, when they stop at the convenience store so that Baekhyun can show them the huge ice-chest of frozen treats out front, explaining how he and Jongdae eat the entire contents by themselves once a week in the summer.

"To protect them," Baekhyun says. He grabs his hat on reflex as the wind blows, and he smiles. "The wind can be really strong, and that kind of constant battering would really mess up tall buildings built in the old style. So the original people of this village built their houses low, so they'd be stronger."

"Same idea as stilt houses, right? Build around the environment, instead of building despite it." Joonmyun runs his hand along the stone walls. "These are for wind, too, right?"

"Well…" Jongdae frowns. "Not exactly." He looks at Baekhyun, who happily picks up the thread.

"Originally, houses in Jeju needed these _uldam_ to keep things in and out," Baekhyun says. "Since the ponies and cows were mostly wild, you had to protect your pigs and your gardens from them." He taps his nose. "There was also the issue of privacy, considering the old layouts of these houses. The main room used to stretch across the entire house, for ventilation, and in the summer, when it was hot and humid, you could see through someone's whole home. The _uldam_ prevented that. And of course, yeah, the wind."

"You sound like a guide book," Jongin says, with a big smile. He's draping his arm over Joonmyun's shoulders.

"A very approachable one," Joonmyun says. "You must know a lot about Jeju."

"I do," Baekhyun says. "It's my home, so I should, right?"

"Do you play tour guide for everyone who comes through here?" Jongin asks, and Baekhyun winks at him.

"No, I save that for my most special of guests," replies Baekhyun, fluttering his eyelashes flirtatiously, and Jongdae and Kyungsoo slap opposite shoulders at the same time. Baekhyun yelps, throwing an arm around each of their shoulders and pulling them into a hug. "You guys have got to come up with a better way of showing you care."

"Why, when this way so effectively communicates the distressing mix of frustration and begrudging acceptance?" Jongdae asks, squirming free and skipping ahead. "My family's restaurant is just up ahead."

Baekhyun's other arm remains around Kyungsoo's narrow shoulders as they walk. Kyungsoo falls into him, some, warm and pliant, until again, he remembers himself, gingerly escaping from the semi-embrace and moving to amble the rest of the way between Joonmyun and Jongin. Baekhyun ignores the urge to stubbornly grab Kyungsoo's hand and hold it, instead catching up to Jongdae.

"Hello, Mom!" Baekhyun shouts, when they enter the restaurant, and Jongdae's mom peeks out from the kitchen with a grin. "Baekhyunnie! More guests?"

"Stop trying to steal my mom," Jongdae says, half-heartedly, and Baekhyun laughs and skips past Jongdeok at the register to make his way back to the kitchen doorway.

"Kyungsoo's friends," Baekhyun says. "The entryway at the guesthouse looked like an Italian leather catalogue this morning." He takes the tray from her arms. "Which table?"

"Aren't you helpful today?" She laughs. "Aunty Lee's table."

"Got it," Baekhyun says. He sees Jongdae guiding Jongin and Joonmyun to the usual table in the back, where they can make the most noise and disturb the fewest people, and he grins at the way Kyungsoo sits one seat from the end, leaving the space next to him for Baekhyun.

Aunty Lee pinches Baekhyun's cheek after he sets down her gaeranjjim. Baekhyun talks to her for a few minutes, answering a few questions about where he keeps finding such handsome boys to bring here to the restaurant, and then he takes the tray back to the kitchen, kissing Jongdae's mom's forehead and grabbing the side-dishes for his own table.

When he finally sits down, accidentally banging knees with Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo gives him a tiny smirk. "Your harem of older women?"

"It's not my fault people's taste gets better as they age." Baekhyun takes the side dishes off the tray, putting them in Kyungsoo's reach so he can make sure they're straight on the table.

"Or they grow more willing to settle," Jongdae cracks back, and Joonmyun laughs behind his hand as Baekhyun throws a napkin at his face. Jongin pouts at the pickled anchovies, and Baekhyun remembers that he doesn't like strong smells and switches the little plate with the cucumbers. They're both happier that way.

They eat grilled pork as Jongdae tells funny stories about Baekhyun's tendency to make the old diving women adore him, and Baekhyun pretends to be put out about it, but really, he thinks it's funny, too. Plus Kyungsoo grows more relaxed as dinner progresses, maybe finally accepting that his friends are here and that it doesn't have to ruin anything. Halfway through the table's second bottle of soju, Kyungsoo lets Baekhyun play with his fingers under the table.

When the meat is gone, the grill gone cold, they play a drinking game that has them all trading seats continuously, laughingly stumbling and falling onto different cushions as they trip. Jongin is a lot more open now that he's had something to drink, and Joonmyun seems to think everything is funny, high color in his cheeks and his hair mussed. He still covers his pink mouth with his hand when he starts to chuckle.

Kyungsoo and Jongdae are bickering playfully over who won the most recent round when they reach the end of the soju bottle and decline another, Jongdae's mom laughing at them as she closes up the rest of the restaurant around them.

Baekhyun has wound up next to Jongin, the younger man peacefully leaning forward and watching everyone else at the table, his arms flush against the wood.

"So you've known Kyungsoo a long time," Baekhyun says, startling Jongin, who jumps and turns to Baekhyun sleepily.

"The high school we went to was in Yokohama," Jongin says. "Boarding school. Pretty much everyone our age just lived with their parents, but Kyungsoo and I were boarders. We lived on campus, which mostly only senior students did."

"Senior?" Baekhyun tries the English words out on his tongue, and Jongin laughs.

"The last year of high school," Jongin says. "Like being a high school third year in Korea, or in regular Japanese school, too. Everyone's required to go into residence when they're in their last year. International students who are on their own board the whole time, though. Kyungsoo and I were the only two Koreans around the same age, and we got put together for rooming." Jongin starts to play with his wristbands. He's wearing about ten of them, in all sorts of colors.

"Good thing you liked each other, then," Baekhyun says. His lower lip is a bit numb as he chews on it. "Otherwise you'd have been really stuck."

"I don't think either of us had ever really had too many friends before that," Jongin says. "Kyungsoo's family never stayed in one place, because of his dad, so he was a serious loner, and I'm… I'm not so good, with strangers. We did pretty well with each other, though, even if we aren't much alike."

"You drove all the way down to Jeju listening to Japanese tapes just to check on him," Baekhyun says. "Sounds like a real friendship to me."

Jongin sighs. "Kyungsoo-hyung has always been kind of weird," he says, swishing his soju around in his glass. He looks barely old enough to drink it "He can be really hard to read. He was always strung so tightly in high school, and then in college it was even worse." His hair falls across his forehead, and he tosses it out of his face, finally taking a sip of his soju, grimacing at the taste. "When he called to say he was down here, I thought it was a good thing, but then he didn't come back."

Baekhyun drags his fingers through the small puddle of spilled water on the table in front of him, from sloppily refilled cups during dinner. He makes a small happy face with it, then looks up at Jongin. "Thought Jejudo had swallowed him right up?"

"It's good to see that isn't the case." Jongin looks over at Kyungsoo, and Baekhyun follows his gaze. Kyungsoo is laughing at something Joonmyun or Jongdae is saying, his mouth split into that grin. Baekhyun tries to commit the look on his face right now to memory, since he knows he's running out of time. Jongin sets his glass down, tearing Baekhyun's attention away from Kyungsoo pushing his hair back from his face. "He's so relaxed, right now. I hope he can bring some of this peace with him, when he comes back to Seoul."

"So do I," Baekhyun says, pushing his own soju glass away, still tasting the bitterness of his last shot on his tongue. Jongdae laughs, loudly, and Baekhyun dives back into the main conversation with an insult ("yah, Kim Jongdae, no need to roar like a dinosaur just because you look like one,") and Kyungsoo turns to him with dark eyes and laughs.

Back at the guesthouse, they all get ready for bed in shifts. Jongin is gone first, the door to the sixth room closing and locking, and Joonmyun goes to bed shortly after, waving and smiling.

Kyungsoo watches Baekhyun wash his face and brush his teeth, and after Baekhyun has patted his face dry, Kyungsoo grabs a handful of his shirt and kisses him. Baekhyun uses the sink to steady himself, encouraging Kyungsoo by parting his lips, and Kyungsoo tilts his head for more access, yanking Baekhyun closer as he claims his mouth. Baekhyun pushes back, his free hand settling at the small of Kyungsoo's back.

It's all the kisses Baekhyun has wanted to give Kyungsoo all day. He hadn't realized how much he could like kissing, before he'd kissed Kyungsoo for the first time. He hadn't realized how consuming it could be, to want to take and take and take as Kyungsoo's tongue curls around his own.

Baekhyun moans, lowly, into Kyungsoo's mouth, and Baekhyun can feel Kyungsoo smile into the kiss. Kyungsoo pulls back, panting, and rests his forehead against Baekhyun's, eyes dark and lips slick.

"Good night, Baekhyun," he whispers, then he lets go, and leaves, and Baekhyun has to wash his face again with cold water just to ease the consuming heat that has his neck burning like he's out on the water under the summer sun.

⚘❁⚘

In the morning, after a quick breakfast, Baekhyun leads them on an easy hike up along the flattest path behind the guesthouse. He's able to give them the smallest glimpse of the winter flowers, and they're lucky enough to come across a few wild deer, even though that seems to render Jongin somewhat skittish.

Joonmyun seems especially interested in the construction of the guesthouse itself, and he's a good listener, like Kyungsoo is, but he has far more questions, wanting constant clarifications. Baekhyun tells him everything he knows, disclaiming it all with the fact that stories about the land have been passed down orally, but he gives Joonmyun as much historically factual information as he can about how building was done in Jeju during the 1800s and early 1900s, digging out stuff he hadn't even known he remembered.

"And these walls are similar to the ones around the houses in the village and around the guesthouse, right?"

"Exactly," Baekhyun says. "Multi-functional stone fences."

"Protecting the fields from the horses." Joonmyun nods thoughtfully. His hair isn't done today, and it's soft and floppy across his forehead. He's cold: he keeps hiding his hands inside the sleeves of his shirt, and it's cute.

"The ponies are further inland, these days." Baekhyun says. "We have a lot of them around here, since they're brought here when areas get plowed out for resorts or the like. Some other time, if you ever come back to Jeju, you should bring hiking shoes so that you can walk some of the Jeju Olle."

"You really would have been a good teacher," Kyungsoo says, on the way back to the guesthouse, as they walk just ahead of Jongin and Joonmyun.

"Ah well," Baekhyun says, looking at Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo is looking up at the sky, at the clouds that gather overhead, fluffy and white and not warning of rain or snow at all. "If I were a teacher, I might not have been able to run the guesthouse, and then I wouldn't have met you." He bumps Kyungsoo with his shoulder, and Kyungsoo stumbles, then swats at him. Baekhyun grins. "And believe me, I'm very happy to have met you."

"My vacation would have been quieter," Kyungsoo says, but Baekhyun delights in Kyungsoo's ears turning red. There's something so wonderful about Kyungsoo when he isn't so collected, and Baekhyun thinks the way Kyungsoo can't keep his embarrassment from showing in his ears is one of Baekhyun's favorite things about him.

"I don't think the quiet is what you were really after, anyway," Baekhyun says. Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at him. "Was it?"

"Such a nuisance," Kyungsoo says, but his lips are twitching.

Kyungsoo and Joonmyun cook lunch.

"I'm not good at cooking," Joonmyun says, "but I'm excellent at following directions." Baekhyun helps when he can, chopping vegetables the way his grandmother had taught him when he was a teenager and trying not to get in the way, and Jongin sits at the kitchen table writing frantic e-mails for work. He types much, much faster than Kyungsoo does, but Baekhyun laughs as he keeps missing the keys and hitting backspace.

They eat quickly, but linger over hot drinks afterward.

"Are you drinking hot chocolate?" Joonmyun asks, looking between his cup and Kyungsoo's, and realizing they aren't the same.

"Baekhyun thinks I drink too much coffee," Kyungsoo replies, dryly. He's sitting across from Baekhyun, and his toes tickle Baekhyun's ankle pointedly.

"For a while there, I thought you were going to become coffee," Baekhyun says. "I was just trying to save you from the inevitable ulcers." He takes a sip of his own chocolate. "Hot chocolate is sweet and harmless, like me."

"Harmless?" Kyungsoo snorts. "Hardly." Still, he's looking at Baekhyun so softly that Baekhyun's chest clenches, and he has to look away or he doesn't know what he'll do. Kyungsoo's bare feet rest on top of his, and it's so weirdly intimate that Baekhyun feels naked, sitting at the table with Joonmyun and Jongin.

Joonmyun, when Baekhyun looks at him, is looking back and forth between the two of them, speculative. Baekhyun clears his throat.

"I'll start on the dishes," Baekhyun says, standing.

"I'm going out back for a cigarette," Jongin says, ruffling his own hair.

"You should go with him," Joonmyun says to Kyungsoo. "I'll help Baekhyun with the dishes."

Kyungsoo gives Joonmyun an odd look, then nods. His eyebrows come together in the middle. Baekhyun wonders what he's thinking about.

"You don't have to," Baekhyun says to Joonmyun. "There aren't that many things to wash, and you're on a mini-vacation."

"I have a confession," Joonmyun says, as both Jongin and Kyungsoo go to get their coats. "I am the opposite of domestic at home. I haven't done the dishes in my sink in two weeks because I've been too busy, and I'm pretty sure my girlfriend is going to have a heart attack the next time she comes over." He chuckles to himself. "So you could say that doing the dishes _is_ vacation behavior for me."

"If you insist," Baekhyun says. "You know, you aren't at all what I expected."

"Oh?" Joonmyun looks at him curiously, rolling up his sleeves. The expensive white cotton crisply stays just above his elbows. Not like the overlong sleeves of Kyungsoo's sweatshirts, when Baekhyun rolls them up for him. "How so?"

"From the way Kyungsoo described you, I thought you'd be more…" Baekhyun shrugs. "I don't know. I guess all I really _knew_ about you was that you dropped a dish when he told you that he was…"

"Gay?" Joonmyun asks lightly. "It surprised me." He sheepishly ruffles his own hair. "Kyungsoo is so blunt sometimes."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "That's one of his charms, though."

"It is," Joonmyun says, picking up the stack of bowls and dumping them in the washbasin in the sink. He pulls on the rubber gloves, and then adds soap to the water. "He's never what anyone expects him to be, either."

Baekhyun laughs. "I'm sure he quickly sets them straight," he says. He pulls out a drying cloth and takes the first clean bowl from Joonmyun. There will be too many dishes to let them air dry.

"He does," Joonmyun says. "It's a true pleasure to watch him deal with people at work, when he's on his game."

Baekhyun can envision it. Kyungsoo, in half of an expensive suit, his jacket abandoned as he pores over plans, quietly demanding perfection from everyone around him with an arched eyebrow. He can see some of that in the Kyungsoo of Jeju Island. Small pieces of what he must be like, working. The focus and the intensity.

"He seems so much better," Joonmyun says, handing Baekhyun the last bowl to dry. "He looked so strained, those last couple of weeks of October. I was really worried about him. He felt so guilty, I could tell, even if getting him to talk about his feelings makes him get all…" He searches for a word.

"Hedgehoggy," Baekhyun says, and Joonmyun gives him a pleased grin.

"That's perfect," says Joonmyun. "Yes, he gets ‘hedgehoggy', and so I didn't want to press him. I knew he was going to need time after something that happened at work, though, because of his perfectionist tendencies." His hands still on the bowl, like he suddenly realizes he might have said too much. He clears his throat uncomfortably.

"You knew he was going to break before he did," Baekhyun mumbles, but Joonmyun has sharp hearing, apparently, and gives him a questioning look. "That's what Kyungsoo said, when he told me. That everyone else knew he was going to break before he did."

"Did he tell you, about…"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "He did. We went on a sightseeing tour, and he… told me."

"Kyungsoo isn't someone who opens up a lot." Joonmyun sets the last of the bowls on the drying rack. "You must have superpowers."

"Is bothering him to death a superpower?" Baekhyun jokes, and Joonmyun laughs, drying his hands on the soft pink towel Baekhyun has left by the sink.

"What are you two talking about?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun spins around to see he's come back into the kitchen. His coat isn't zipped up, and he looks cold.

"You, naturally." Baekhyun grins as Kyungsoo glowers at him, unimpressed. "Aren't you supposed to be keeping Jongin company?"

"I came back in to get my scarf," Kyungsoo says. "I was just checking in on you."

"We aren't sharing secrets," Baekhyun says, walking over to Kyungsoo and reaching for the ends of his coat. He doesn't stop Baekhyun from fitting the zipper-stop into the slide, and then pulling the tab up until the coat is closed all the way up to his neck. "So don't worry."

"I'm not worried," Kyungsoo says, smiling at Baekhyun, who drops his hands as Kyungsoo adjusts his scarf. "I'd better head back outside."

Baekhyun watches him go, and listens for the opening and closing of the back door. When it shuts, he turns back to Joonmyun, who is looking at Baekhyun with piercing eyes.

"He's so comfortable with you," Joonmyun says. "I had to work a lot harder."

"I'm sort of like a wrecking ball," Baekhyun says, rubbing his hands nervously together, grinning as widely as he can at Joonmyun. "He didn't stand a chance against me."

"I can see that," Joonmyun says. "Should we go outside and join them?"

Jongin has the cigarette between his teeth as he and Kyungsoo talk, blowing tiny rings of smoke every so often. Jongin is leaning against the back of the house, and Joonmyun leans next to him. Kyungsoo watches from his seat on the edge of the steps, Chanyeol's favorite spot. Baekhyun sits next to Kyungsoo, immediately squawking at the frigid cement of the step under his butt. Kyungsoo leans into Baekhyun, his shoulder pressing against him. He doesn't stop talking to Jongin, though, in English. Kyungsoo's English is sharp and crisp. It sounds like the tapes Baekhyun's teacher used to play in high school, only Baekhyun wants to keep listening to this.

Finally, Joonmyun checks his watch again and sighs.

"We have to leave soon to make our ferry," Joonmyun says, at a natural lull in the conversation. "Thank you for being such a great guide, Baekhyun-ssi."

"It was no problem," Baekhyun says. "You should come back to Jejudo again some time, and see some of its more well known places. Not just my little village."

"I'll keep that in mind," Joonmyun says. "Tell Jongdae it was really lovely to meet him, too, won't you?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "Absolutely."

It takes Jongin ten minutes to doublecheck his bags, shoving things in from every corner of his room. Joonmyun's is already by the door, zipped and ready.

"It was really lovely to meet you, too," Joonmyun says, later, standing in front of his car. He opens the back door and drops his overnight bag next to Jongin's. "You're not what I expected at all, either."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

Jongin and Kyungsoo are talking in quieter voices on the other side of the car, when Baekhyun glances over at them. Jongin is rumpled and looks unenthusiastic about the upcoming drive, but his hand is on Kyungsoo's arm in a comforting gesture before pulling him into a tight hug, which Kyungsoo seems to accept like he's a rag doll in Jongin's arms.

"It's a good thing," Joonmyun says. "Kyungsoo is smiling so much. I can tell it's because of you."

"It's because he's distracted here," Baekhyun says. "Farther away from the things that make him sad." He looks down at his sneakers. "Not so sure that's me, or just the whole package." He holds his arm out, to indicate the island.

"I think it's you," Joonmyun says, then looks down at his watch. He looks over at Jongin, raising his voice. "Time to go, Jonginnie."

Jongin waves, with both hands, and Baekhyun does the same thing back at him, teasingly, which makes Jongin smile sleepily at him.

They drive away, leaving Kyungsoo and Baekhyun alone in the driveway. Kyungsoo looks away first, heading back up to the guesthouse, and Baekhyun follows a few moments later.

Kyungsoo is standing in the hallway. He presses his hand flat to the wall, and looks around, like he's trying to fix the image in his mind.

"Everything okay?" Baekhyun asks. He rests his hands on Kyungsoo's shoulders, squeezing them, and then lets go, not sure he's correctly gauging Kyungsoo's mood.

"I'd missed my friends," Kyungsoo says. "I didn't realize that until they were here."

"Are you sad that they left?" Baekhyun asks. "Joonmyun drives slowly enough you could probably run and catch them."

"Haha." Kyungsoo taps the edge of the cabinet by the door. "I'm going to take a shower," he says. "I'm sweaty from the hike. After that, could we…" He looks up at Baekhyun, finally, "take a bath?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "Yeah, I'll rinse off and fill the tub."

Kyungsoo pushes his hair back, and smiles at Baekhyun. "Thank you."

Baekhyun starts the water running in the steam room, and when he comes back, naked and clean, the steam has already filled the room, ogalpi a reassuring scent as Baekhyun tests the water with his hand before stepping into the tub. He sits down, hissing as the hot water stings his skin, and then leans his head back, closing his eyes.

He doesn't open them again until Kyungsoo steps into the water, causing a small ripple that crests against Baekhyun's collarbones. Baekhyun expects Kyungsoo to sit across from him, but he doesn't. Instead, he sits with his back to Baekhyun, and then taps Baekhyun's calf. "Let me scoot back," he says, not really asking, and Baekhyun spreads his legs to make room for Kyungsoo between them. Kyungsoo doesn't stop until they're pressed together back to chest, the hot water lapping at both of their shoulders now. Kyungsoo leans his head back, onto Baekhyun's shoulder. Like this, Baekhyun can't see Kyungsoo's face, but his spine presses into Baekhyun's sternum.

They stay like this, for some time. The steam is relaxing, and it starts to thin slightly as the water begins to cool. Without the scorching temperature of the water, Baekhyun is confronted with just how slick and smooth Kyungsoo's skin is against his own, and how much of Kyungsoo is pressing into him, naked and wet. He can tell Kyungsoo notices, too, because his heart is beating so fast, and Baekhyun can feel it, and knows Kyungsoo can feel his, as well.

"You're being very quiet," Kyungsoo says, lowly, and it cuts through the silence in the room. Baekhyun swallows, and tries not to shift his hips. He's starting to feel light-headed, and he's not sure if it's from the steam and heat, or because all his blood is rushing south. He feels like a fucking teenager, unable to control his reactions, and it would be humiliating if Kyungsoo didn't skipping breaths. "What are you thinking about?" Kyungsoo is gliding his fingers along the edge of the tub, the same way he had with the welcome desk yesterday, and it reminds Baekhyun of their interrupted conversation.

"What did you almost hope?" Baekhyun asks, and his cock, partially erect, fits against Kyungsoo's ass. It's hard for Baekhyun to concentrate like this. He runs his hands down the fronts of Kyungsoo's arms to anchor himself. "Yesterday, when we were standing behind the welcome desk, you said that you almost hoped for something." In profile, he can see Kyungsoo's Adam's apple bob. His neck is red, too.

Kyungsoo turns his hands so that his palms are facing up, and Baekhyun's hands end their path there, linking his and Kyungsoo's fingers together. "Yes," Kyungsoo says. "I'd almost hoped that you wouldn't be as attracted to me as I am to you."

Baekhyun kisses Kyungsoo's shoulder. "Why?"

"So it would be easier to leave," Kyungsoo says, untangling their hands. Baekhyun barely has time to register the lurch in his stomach before Kyungsoo turns around in the tub. The water sloshes loudly out and onto the floor, and the steam rises. "But no, Byun Baekhyun, you have to make things complicated."

Baekhyun gasps as Kyungsoo resettles into his lap, facing him, their cocks pressed together between their bellies and Kyungsoo's lips gently kissing just above his lip, where Baekhyun knows he has a mole. "I've always kind of plunged into things headfirst," Baekhyun says, "even when I know there'll be consequences."

Kyungsoo laughs, and Baekhyun kisses his smile, gripping Kyungsoo's thighs. "Like riding motor scooters without a helmet?"

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, "exactly like that." He nips at Kyungsoo's lower lip, and Kyungsoo grunts, displeased, pressing in for a deeper kiss.

It's familiar now, the way Kyungsoo kisses, but it's just as overwhelming. Baekhyun forgets about everything but Kyungsoo's lips and tongue, and his hands, his small, square hands, that drop to toy with Baekhyun's nipples, thumbs flicking at the buds. "You weren't supposed to want me back," Kyungsoo murmurs, words almost lost in between kisses, and Baekhyun, feeling daring, slides his hands up Kyungsoo's thighs and the around his hips to cup his ass, pulling him closer still, more water splashing out of the tub as Kyungsoo jerks against him.

From there he slides his hands up Kyungsoo's back up to his shoulders and then down his arms again. Kyungsoo's skin is so soft and so smooth, and Baekhyun wants to touch all of it. He flattens his palms and brings them down Kyungsoo's chest, across the soft swell of his stomach, lingering for a few moments at his navel, until he gets to where Kyungsoo's cock is pressing into his own stomach. He takes it carefully in his hand, feeling for differences as he searches for Kyungsoo's mouth with his own, finding his cheek and then his nose before Kyungsoo nudges him slightly to guide their lips together.

He starts to explore Kyungsoo, then, his fingers cradling Kyungsoo's balls briefly before coming back up to the shaft of his cock, pulling the skin and feeling it move in his hand. Baekhyun has a moment of panic— _this isn't my dick, this is someone else's dick_ \-- but it passes at Kyungsoo's first moan, higher than usual as Baekhyun starts to pick up a rhythm.

"Harder," Kyungsoo says. "You're not going to break it." He puts his hand over Baekhyun's and squeezes, until Baekhyun's hold is much tighter than he uses on himself. Then again, Baekhyun likes to tease himself, when he jerks off. It shouldn't surprise him that Kyungsoo is more efficient.

"Go easy on me," Baekhyun says, sucking at the underside of Kyungsoo's jaw. "I've never touched someone else's dick before." Kyungsoo's eyes flash, and his hips rock forward into Baekhyun's grip as his cock pulses in Baekhyun's hand. "You like that? That I've never done this before?"

"I don't know," Kyungsoo says, and then stalls further questions by sealing his mouth to Baekhyun's. Every stroke Baekhyun gives Kyungsoo, his knuckles run up the underside of his own erection, the water making everything the wrong kind of slick. Kyungsoo's skin is hotter than the water, now, and he can feel the heaviness of him in his hand as Kyungsoo leaves his mouth to suck marks into his neck and chest, marks that sting at the same time as they make Baekhyun even harder.

Baekhyun bangs his elbow on the side of the tub as he tries to shift to a more comfortable position, his tailbone digging in to the floor of the tub. He releases Kyungsoo's erection and tries to straighten. "Kyungsoo," he says, his voice coming out rough and weak.

Kyungsoo looks at him, mouth red and swollen, his hair wet and mussed. "Do you want me to stop?" His hands are frozen on Baekhyun's shoulders, and Baekhyun hurries to reassure him.

"No," Baekhyun says. "I mean, temporarily? We have to get out of the tub." He leans forward and splashes water everywhere to kiss Kyungsoo again, and Kyungsoo sighs, the tension leaving his back. "I don't want to stop, it's just that I'm starting to lose sensation in my ass, like this, and also I let guests use this tub for sore muscles so I don't really want to, you know, come in it—"

"You talk too much," Kyungsoo says, splashing water at Baekhyun, who sputters. They climb out of the tub, and Baekhyun makes it three splashy steps before Kyungsoo is on him again, sloppily kissing him as Baekhyun immediately forgets to worry about the slippery floor or emptying the tub.

They stumble out of the steamy room, Baekhyun's shoulder hitting the door and then the hall wall as Kyungsoo refuses to relinquish his mouth, and Baekhyun pushes Kyungsoo into the opposite wall, grinding into him impatiently as Kyungsoo moans, fisting a hand in Baekhyun's hair and pulling. It sends a spike of arousal right down to Baekhyun's stomach, and his hips buck forward, seeking more friction to appease the want.

"Hair pulling?" Kyungsoo mumbles, and Baekhyun laughs, scraping his teeth down the side of Kyungsoo's neck. "Really?" Baekhyun works a hand in between their bodies to wrap around Kyungsoo's cock as Kyungsoo yanks at Baekhyun's hair again, and Baekhyun's laugh gets choked off into a groan. "That's so…"

Kyungsoo's eyes flutter closed at Baekhyun awkwardly fists Kyungsoo's erection, trying to stroke it the way Kyungsoo likes it, harder than he would his own. He can feel the muscles clench and unclench in Kyungsoo's thighs, and the head of Kyungsoo's cock, when Baekhyun swipes his thumb along the slit, wet with precome. He rubs his palm over the head in quick circles, until Kyungsoo's hips are insistent.

"Fuck, Baekhyun," Kyungsoo says, and then he's spilling between Baekhyun's fingers, tiny spurts of come flecking Baekhyun's stomach where it has escaped from his hand. Kyungsoo rests his forehead on Baekhyun's shoulder, breathing as Baekhyun continues to stroke him, avoiding the head and letting Kyungsoo go soft in his hand.

Then Kyungsoo lifts his head to look Baekhyun right in the eyes, and Baekhyun can't help but kiss him again. Kyungsoo wraps a hand around Baekhyun, jerking him quickly, and it takes a laughably short time for Baekhyun to come too, messily, all over Kyungsoo's hand and arm.

"I guess we have to take another shower," Baekhyun says, kind of into Kyungsoo's mouth, but Kyungsoo hears him anyway, and laughs.

"I guess we do," he says.

They rinse each other off in Baekhyun's bathroom, hands wandering but not too far, and Kyungsoo's fingers linger over the red marks he's left across Baekhyun's chest. "Always so violent," Baekhyun says, and Kyungsoo smirks, dragging his hand up the back of Baekhyun's neck and tugging lightly at the hair there. Baekhyun hisses through his teeth.

"But you like it." Kyungsoo says. "Don't you?"

Kyungsoo's eyes are bright, and his puffy lips are pink and tempting. Water droplets collect at all of his angles, in the dips of his clavicles and in the crooks of his elbows, and Baekhyun wants to map the path of each of those water drops with his lips and tongue.

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "Possibly." He smiles at Kyungsoo, feeling the pull of his abused lips when he does, and Kyungsoo smiles back.

As Baekhyun dries his hair, looking in the mirror at the hickies that stand stark and bright against his winter-pale skin, he feels a sudden surge of suffocating dread, knowing that they'll fade in a few days, and that maybe Kyungsoo will fade with them. He'd seen it, in Kyungsoo's eyes, after all, the reminder that this winter can't and won't last forever.

Kyungsoo comes up behind him and drops a kiss on the nape of Baekhyun's neck, and the feeling retreats, but Baekhyun knows it isn't gone.

That night, they sleep together in Baekhyun's room. The wind is especially loud in the rafters. "Do you still think it sounds like singing?" Baekhyun whispers to Kyungsoo, who has Baekhyun trapped under him with a heavy arm across his stomach.

Kyungsoo sighs, and his breath blows Baekhyun's hair. "Yes. Like you singing off key in the mornings when you think I'm still sleeping."

"Do I wake you up?" Baekhyun teases, using two fingers to dance along the arm pinning him down.

"I don't mind waking up like that," Kyungsoo says. His voice is barely intelligible, like he's mostly asleep and only answering to humor Baekhyun. "Feels homey."

Baekhyun turns his head sharply to stare at Kyungsoo, but in the dark, he can't make out his face. "Does it?" he asks, and this time he gets no answer.

He falls asleep to the sound of the wind, eventually, helped along by the sound of Kyungsoo's even breathing.

⚘❁⚘

"Where's Kyungsoo?" Jongdae asks, and Baekhyun jumps at the sound, almost dropping his mop before turning around to find Jongdae standing in the doorway to the steam room wearing a KIA Tigers sweatshirt that's at least six years old. It's too small for him, so the sleeves are crushed up to his elbows. "I looked in his room and he was gone."

"You looked in his room?" Baekhyun rests the mop against the wall. He's nearly finished anyway. After two days, most of the water has already dried, but Baekhyun doesn't want mold or anything else, even if there's less danger of that in the winter. "Stalker."

"I was just curious," says Jongdae. "Besides, the door was open. He's so neat." He looks Baekhyun up and down, gaze lingering on his holey jeans, as if to say _in contrast to you, honestly, ByunBaek._

"He's sleeping in my room."

"What's he doing there?" Jongdae steps into the room. "Were you using the tub last night?"

"We stayed up late talking and he fell asleep," Baekhyun says. He wants to tell Jongdae the truth, but Kyungsoo doesn't want that. He'll tell him when Kyungsoo leaves, probably, and Jongdae will slap him upside the head and call him a big fat hypocrite. "It didn't make sense to move him."

"Remember when we used to do that?" Jongdae asks, and Baekhyun grins.

"I do," Baekhyun says. "You kick in your sleep."

"I do not," says Jongdae. "I kick when I'm awake. You make those weird noises, and kicking you is my way of saying ‘shut up'."

"You're terrible." Baekhyun pushes Jongdae out into the hallway in short consecutive shoves, until Jongdae laughs and slaps away his arms. "Play videogames with me."

"Actually, I need to talk to you about something." The smile has slipped from Jongdae's face, and Baekhyun hums to quell the worry the phrase summons up.

"You and Soojung aren't getting married already, right?" Baekhyun asks, lightly, brushing past Jongdae to walk into the kitchen. "I don't know if I'm ready for that." He can feel Jongdae watching as he pours himself a glass of water. He remembers, as he pours, that Kyungsoo is still sleeping. Still wrapped up in Baekhyun's blankets, face pressed into Baekhyun's pillow. "Let's take this outside."

He grabs his coat and Jongdae's from the hook by the front door, but he leads them out the back, slipping into the black sandals at the door. Baekbeom's ashtray is still on the step, filled with a mix of his cigarette butts and Jongin's. Baekhyun moves it so there's enough room for them to sit comfortably side by side.

The wind is comfortable, today, cooling Baekhyun down from the exertion of mopping up. Jongdae, though, hadn't been nearly so overheated, so he leans in to steal some of Baekhyun's warmth, and Baekhyun allows it, throwing an easy arm across his back.

"So what's up?" With his free hand, Baekhyun starts to pick at the white threads of his jeans, ripping the holes larger in tiny increments.

"Soojung is going to graduate school in the U.S.," Jongdae says. "Marine biology."

"Yeah, we've known that's what she wanted for a while."

"She's been accepted to a school in…" Jongdae frowns. "Well, some good school, for her major."

"You worried she's going to dump you for an American boy or something?" Baekhyun teases, and Jongdae shakes his head.

"No," Jongdae says. "Not really. I think…" he taps his feet in an uneven pattern. "I think she's pretty serious about sticking with me?"

"Then what's the problem?" The hole stretches far enough up Baekhyun's thigh now that the edge of a fading bruise, from where he'd accidentally banged his leg into the tub a couple of nights ago, is starting to show. He abandons the thread, and switches to the other knee.

"She knows what she wants to do with her life," Jongdae says. "She has a plan, and it doesn't have anything to do with coming back here to run a restaurant." His hair falls across his forehead, and he shakes his head to get it out of his eyes. "All I know about my future is what I don't want." He hunches forward, slipping his hands into his pockets.

"What is it that you don't want?"

"To run a restaurant in Jeolbyeog-ri. I don't want that, for sure." Jongdae sighs. "This is the last year I can defer my enrollment for college, Baekhyun. I don't think I'm going to."

"What?"

Jongdae is looking down. His face is more serious than usual, and the corners of his mouth lack their usual upward curl.

"I think I'm going to go to college, Baekhyunnie." Jongdae sighs. "I'm going to major in something like business or accounting, something useful, so that I can get a job wherever Soojung ends up working."

Jongdae had never been as hopeless at school as Baekhyun. He'd gotten full marks on most of his work, even as Baekhyun wallowed through with low grades. They'd participated in the same mischief, but Jongdae had always managed to keep his grades up.

"If I send in my registration now," he says, "I can start on March 2nd with all the other first years." He grins. "I'm only twenty-five, you know?"

"That's… soon." Baekhyun says. He clenches his jaw to stop more words from coming out, since he doesn't know what they'd be. His fingers curl into the material of Jongdae's jacket, where he's holding onto him.

Jongdae had gotten into a really good program in Seoul, Baekhyun recalls. It had been a few months after Baekhyun had received the miserable results of his suneung exams, putting a nail in the coffin of Baekhyun's hopes of getting into Cheju National. Jongdae had gotten an invitation in the mail, and he'd laughed. _"More school?"_ he'd said, tucking the package underneath the other mail on the counter, next to the big clay jars of his mother's favorite teas. _"No way, I'm still recovering from high school."_ They'd both enlisted a little after that, in the navy, and Jongdae had never really brought it up again.

"It is," Jongdae says. "I'd have to leave in the next few weeks. Figure out living arrangements and take the language placement exams."

"Sounds like you have it all figured out," says Baekhyun, flatly, and Jongdae laughs, voice crackling and too high.

It's colder now that Baekhyun's not worked up from mopping anymore. He curls his toes in his socks, to protect them, but it doesn't help much. He presses more against Jongdae, who is holding himself rigidly in Baekhyun's half-embrace.

"Not really," Jongdae says. "I've been trying to figure it out all week, and I guess I needed to talk it out with you before it felt real."

"So it feels real now?" Baekhyun's eyes sting. Jongdae lets out a whoosh of air.

It hits Baekhyun, all of a sudden, what this means.

Jongdae is… Jongdae was always supposed to stay. Because maybe Kyungsoo has never been Baekhyun's to keep, but Jongdae is, _was_ , and now that's being taken away from him too. Baekhyun wants to scream, because it's _not_ okay, it's _not_ fine, and Baekhyun doesn't know what he's supposed to do with all this anger.

"I don't want to leave you," Jongdae says. "Especially when I know that Kyungsoo will be leaving soon, too, and then…"

And Baekhyun doesn't like to think about how Kyungsoo's bags are already halfway packed, and all the apartment plans are in the trunk of his car. He doesn't like to notice that Kyungsoo has taken out his Italian leather shoes and set them in the hall entryway. The guesthouse will be empty again, two whole months before the backpackers start to truck in. He doesn't want to think about that, and he doesn't want to think about Jongdae leaving right on his heels, for who knows how long.

He _can't_ think about it, really, because then his heart will feel all empty and hollow, and Baekhyun doesn't know how he'll smile through that, and wish them both well.

He doesn't want to spend the rest of his life saying goodbye to people. He wants to scream and cry and make Jongdae stay, and fuck, make Kyungsoo stay too. He wants to have the island and have everything else too, and he wants happiness to stop feeling like spring water cupped in his hands, slipping between his fingers every time he thinks he might be able to take a drink.

Jongdae's wearing the extra pair of sandals Baekhyun leaves for him by the backdoor. They used to be Baekbeom's. Now they'll probably be no one's.

"Don't worry about stupid stuff like that," Baekhyun says, voice surprisingly steady. Inside, he's far from steady, the hole in his gut where Kyungsoo's inevitable departure has been chewing away at him now immeasurably larger. "You can't live your life for someone else. You have to live it for yourself, Jongdae."

"But…"

"I'll be fine," Baekhyun says, with forced flippancy. "In case you didn't know, I'm pretty tough." He grins at Jongdae, and he's had enough practice that it reaches his eyes. "Chanyeol and I will just have to raise hell without you."

"I'm sorry," Jongdae says, pulling away from Baekhyun so he can face him. Baekhyun puts both of his hands on his knees, and watches Jongdae. He can see the tension in his friend. "This just isn't enough for me." Jongdae gestures around, at the sea of grass in front of them, but Baekhyun knows what Jongdae means. He means the village, and the inlet, and horse trails through the hills. He means the lazy mornings and busy afternoons and aimless nights. Baekhyun knows _exactly_ what Jongdae means, because he's felt it before, he's felt it _constantly_ , really, ever since his grandmother had passed and he'd seen nothing ahead him but more of the same. "I love Jeolbyeog-ri, with all my heart, but…"

"I know," Baekhyun says. "I get it." He scratches his neck, and looks down at the holes in the knees of his jeans. "Of course I get it. You have to do what's best for you. I'll hold down the fort, you know?"

"Yeah," Jongdae says. "Yeah." He links his arm around Baekhyun's, and rests his head on Baekhyun's shoulder. Baekhyun looks up and out at the trees, still green, the peeling bark waiting for him to start collecting it. He will, in the spring, without Jongdae. "Still up for videogames?"

"Only if you're up for losing," Baekhyun says, and Jongdae laughs. "I can hear the Wave Race theme playing already."

"In your dreams," Jongdae says, and Baekhyun rests his cheek against Jongdae's hair. His stomach is all tied up. "You've never beat me in Wave Race in your life, and we've had it like, ten years."

Jongdae starts to move, but Baekhyun puts a hand on his thigh to still him. "Just give me a minute," Baekhyun says, and it's a testament to their friendship that Jongdae doesn't say anything about how soppy he sounds.

Kyungsoo is awake and in the kitchen when they come in. He looks warm and ruffled, and so, so comfortable lounging against the counter in his SNU sweatshirt, stirring coffee methodically with his lower lip caught in his teeth. "Good morning," he says, low and rough. Baekhyun's stomach, which has just begun to settle, and his chest, tighten up all over again.

"Hey," Baekhyun says, looking away as he takes off his coat. "Lucky you're awake, since there's about to be serious competitive Wave Racer happening."

"Hasn't Jongdae defeated you enough that you'd pick another game?"

"Hah," Jongdae crows triumphantly. "Even Kyungsoo knows you don't stand a chance."

"What _ever_ ," Baekhyun replies, taking Jongdae's coat as Kyungsoo takes an amused sip of his coffee. "People who stop trying never get anywhere in life."

"That's the smartest thing you've ever said, Baekhyunnie," Jongdae calls after him as he walks into the hall.

Baekhyun and Jongdae spend a good three hours playing Wave Racer. Chanyeol comes over about thirty minutes into their marathon, and joins them, beating both Baekhyun and Jongdae handily before retiring to the window to write in his notebook, song lyrics or something, laughing as Baekhyun's swearing gets louder.

Kyungsoo doesn't work on his computer. He has a book, that same one he's been reading for months now, his page marker peeking out near the end of it, but he doesn't open it. Instead he sits too close to Baekhyun, their knees banging every time Baekhyun gets too excited and emulates the motion of his jet-ski on screen, tilting toward the yellow and red arrows. After his fifth consecutive loss, Baekhyun hands the control to Kyungsoo, who looks down at it like it's possessed.

"What's this for?" Kyungsoo asks. "I don't play videogames."

"You can play this one," Baekhyun says. He edges around Kyungsoo, so that he's sitting behind him. He has a flash of a few nights ago, in the tub, but he blinks it away, settling his hands over Kyungsoo's on the controller. "I'll show you."

"I don't know if I want you to teach me," Kyungsoo says. His voice has dropped again, and Baekhyun takes a deep breath. All he smells is Kyungsoo's aftershave. "You seem to do more talking and swearing than winning."

Jongdae and Chanyeol laugh, and Baekhyun grins. "I can at least show you the controls." He pushes Kyungsoo's thumb with his own. "Direction here." He uses the fingers on his right hand to reposition Kyungsoo's other thumb over the big green A. "This is how you accelerate," he says, right into Kyungsoo's ear.

Kyungsoo lets out a shuddering breath. "Anything else?"

"Left and right triggers to lean." Feeling heat start climbing traitorously up his neck, Baekhyun scoots back, moving to sit next to Kyungsoo again. "You can use the B button to duck down."

"Got it," Kyungsoo says. He's looking fixedly at the screen, and Baekhyun looks away from him. Jongdae is staring at him oddly when he turns to ask Jongdae if he's ready to play, but he grins when Baekhyun raises both eyebrows at him.

Kyungsoo wipes the floor with Jongdae three times. Jongdae whines loudly about beginner's luck, so Chanyeol sets down his notebook and squeezes in between Baekhyun and Jongdae, stealing Jongdae's controller and starting a new timed trial. Kyungsoo narrows his eyes at the screen, concentrating intensely, while Jongdae cheers for Chanyeol and Baekhyun just tries not to get clocked by any elbows.

This moment, Baekhyun decides, as he leans slightly into Kyungsoo, away from Chanyeol's floppy limbs, is kind of wonderful, and he'll hold onto it for later, when he's lonely or sad. When he's thinking about all the things that have been taken away from him, he'll remind himself that he had them once.

Later, when it's just Kyungsoo and Baekhyun sitting across from each other at the kitchen table, a plate with four rolls of kimbap between them, and Baekhyun is rambling on about other games he thinks Kyungsoo might like, he realizes Kyungsoo is staring at him. "What is it?" He reaches up to wipe his mouth, sticking his tongue out to the corners to see if sticky grains of rice linger from previous bites. "Is there something on my face?"

"I can't imagine not wanting to kiss you," Kyungsoo says. "That confuses me."

Baekhyun licks his lips. "What's confusing about it?" He leans forward flirtatiously, ignoring the way his heart is hammering away at his ribcage. "I'm very kissable."

"I don't…" Kyungsoo runs a hand through his hair, and then looks down at the kitchen table. He straightens the dishes in front of him, making an ‘L' with his first finger and thumb to gauge the angle. "I usually find it easy to avoid getting attached to people or places or things." He peeks up at Baekhyun, through the fall of his hair, and Baekhyun thinks: _"I can't imagine not wanting to kiss you, either."_

"That's the opposite of me," Baekhyun says. "I'm an abalone, remember?" He puts his foot on top of Kyungsoo's, seeking touch. "I guess we're really different in most ways, though."

Baekhyun's always had friends he could find sameness in. Friends who'd grown up like him, raised with the scent of camphor and who'd had the wind as their bedtime lullaby.

"The thing is," Kyungsoo says, "when I look at you, I'm not thinking about how different we are."

"What _do_ you think, then?" Baekhyun asks, and Kyungsoo sighs, lightly, and Baekhyun thinks Kyungsoo's going to curl in on himself again, and puff out his spines, but he doesn't. Instead, he reaches across the table, and grabs Baekhyun's hand, pushing their palms together like Baekhyun had done, so long ago, the first time he'd taken Kyungsoo to Jongdae's restaurant. Baekhyun bends his fingers down.

"That you fill in my gaps," Kyungsoo says. "With all your noise and movement and recklessness." He pulls away his hand. "I'm going to go send a few e-mails."

"All right," Baekhyun says. He can hear his heartbeat in his ears, so loud. He wants to grab Kyungsoo. Hold onto him. It's a dream as impossible as teaching, though, and Baekhyun knows better than to want Kyungsoo to stay here with him.

Alone in the kitchen, he puts the leftover kimbap in a container. He hears Kyungsoo moving around, the slow clack of his fingers on the keyboard. There's a mostly empty container of a coffee brand Baekhyun would never pick out for his guests on the counter, and the entire contents of the back of the countertop have been rearranged. All these small things indicating that Kyungsoo is here, lives here, with Baekhyun, in this lonely guesthouse in the hills.

Kyungsoo, who lets Baekhyun think aloud to him, whose own sense of humor challenges Baekhyun to push just a little further, and who appreciates the things Baekhyun's good at and doesn't mind the things he isn't. Kyungsoo, who looks at Baekhyun and sees so much of him, and wants to keep looking.

He fills in Baekhyun's gaps, too.

Baekhyun's hands shake as he sets a pot of water on the stove for hot chocolate.

⚘❁⚘

Kyungsoo's last day at the guesthouse is the twelfth of January.

He takes a walk in the early morning without Baekhyun, holding his phone, and while he's gone Baekhyun robotically goes through his own morning routines, rubbing facial cleanser under his eyes like camouflage while he brushes his teeth. He eats cereal for breakfast and listens to his music through his headphones as he takes inventory of the groceries he needs to buy.

He doesn't need to buy coffee, he figures. Not this month.

Kyungsoo comes back as Baekhyun is rinsing out his bowl, and he slides his hand along the small of Baekhyun's back just above the curve of his ass as he opens the refrigerator to take out a container of jjigae that only needs to be reheated.

They don't talk about him leaving, but Kyungsoo's bags are all the way packed now, and only his pajamas and his nice office clothes are left out, his wool coat hanging over the back of the desk chair looking out of place in the small room. Both desks are empty, bare of any neatly organized papers. Baekhyun's not looking forward to moving it back to Baekbeom's dusty room.

They go out for a walk, and for the first time, Baekhyun takes him out to the inlet, showing Kyungsoo how to pick his way down the rocks like he, Jongdae, and Soojung have done for years. The rocks are cold and slippery, and the ocean is wild, splashing fiercely in the strong winds. Baekhyun can feel droplets of water hit his face, and Kyungsoo's eyelashes collect them.

Baekhyun breathes in and tastes the salt at the back of his mouth.

"This is my favorite place," Baekhyun says. "Because I have so many memories here."

"This is Jongdae's and your place, right?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun nods.

"Originally, though, it was mine." Baekhyun chooses a rock just out of reach of the licking waves, and Kyungsoo sits down close enough that he can grab Baekhyun's hand in a casually possessive touch that lights Baekhyun's blood on fire. "Just for a short time, it was all mine." He bites his lip. "We didn't visit a lot, when I lived in Gapa. I don't know why. There was no fall out between family members or anything like that. I think time just slips away, sometimes, and you don't realize you've wasted it until it's gone."

The waves crash, and Baekhyun gets lost, for a moment, in the past, in rain and in the sounds of fishing boats signaling to each other. Then he blinks, and he's back with Kyungsoo.

"My brother and I didn't come here right after my mom died. We lived with Dad for a while, and Baekbeom brought us both here when it didn't work out."

"You said." Kyungsoo's hand is cold in his, so Baekhyun pulls it into his lap so he can clasp it between both of his.

"That first couple of days here, I explored everything by myself. Baekbeom didn't want to, and I hadn't learned not to wander off alone yet." Baekhyun smiles. "I found this place. Just a secluded place with a perfect view of the ocean, blocked off from the village."

"So you showed it to Jongdae?"

"I thought we could play pirates, here," Baekhyun says. "We did, too. We had a lot of adventures." He laughs, and uses one hand to pull on his hat. "I didn't need a place to be alone, really."

"It really is the perfect view of the ocean."

"So few things in life are perfect," Baekhyun says, looking at Kyungsoo instead of the sea. "But this is definitely one of them."

Kyungsoo turns to him and smiles, a big one, and then he stands, moving so he's between Baekhyun's knees. Baekhyun hooks his fingers on Kyungsoo's coat pockets, and tilts his head back. Bending forward, Kyungsoo brings their mouths together, kissing Baekhyun until he can't possibly feel cold anymore. The wind blows at them, and the waves splash them, and it's all secondary to Kyungsoo's determined press forward. When he pulls back, lips slick, Baekhyun knows he'll keep this moment of coffee and sea salt tucked into the corner of his heart he saves for his favorite things, like early afternoon videogames squished between almost all of his favorite people and nighttime views of the falling snow over a harbor in Jeju-si.

They take a final walk through the village, walking the long way back to the guesthouse, and they eat grilled fish and rice for dinner, and then drink hot chocolate looking out the window in the main room, the finale of one of Baekhyun's dramas playing in the background as Baekhyun tells Kyungsoo about how he and Yixing used to watch dramas together, Baekhyun trying to explain the more complicated words in a way Yixing could understand.

They go to bed early, a little after nine, Kyungsoo not even bothering to look at his own room as they walk into Baekhyun's.

"Today's my birthday," Kyungsoo says, as they lie on Baekhyun's bedding, the leg of Kyungsoo's sweatpants trapped under Baekhyun as Baekhyun rolls onto his side so he can look down at Kyungsoo's face from above.

"You should have told me," Baekhyun says, chiding. "We could have celebrated." He runs his hand down the front of Kyungsoo's shirt, the ribbed fabric soft beneath his fingers. "A party. Cake."

"That's not what I wanted," Kyungsoo says, the last word a gasp as Baekhyun sneaks his hand under Kyungsoo's shirt and trails back up, this time touching skin.

Baekhyun chuckles, moving so he's lower down Kyungsoo's body. "What did you want?"

"What I got," Kyungsoo says. "You. The island. The ocean." He looks odd from this angle, wide eyes staring down suspiciously at Baekhyun who is now even with his bare navel.

"I'm glad it was an ideal birthday," Baekhyun says, and then he kisses the skin right next to Kyungsoo's belly button. "Happy birthday, Do Kyungsoo."

He hums the birthday song, pressing his nose into the giving flesh of Kyungsoo's stomach, and Kyungsoo huffs, putting a hand into Baekhyun's hair and lightly pulling, just enough that Baekhyun feels the jolt of it in his lower stomach.

"Why are you nuzzling my stomach, you freak?" Kyungsoo says. Baekhyun can tell he's trying not to laugh.

"There are no spines on a hedgehog's belly," says Baekhyun, making sure his lips brush the skin, his nose next to the faint trail of hair leading into Kyungsoo's sweatpants. "It's the only place I'm safe."

"Hedgehog?" Kyungsoo's hand falls from Baekhyun's hair to grab at his ear. He pulls, lightly enough not to really hurt but hard enough that Baekhyun is crawling up Kyungsoo's body until they're face to face. "You think I'm a hedgehog?" Kyungsoo's breath is hot chocolate and warmth. He's got that look in his eyes again, the one that tells Baekhyun that nothing but him matters right now, and Baekhyun kisses his nose.

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, "Small and spiky and always curling up." Kyungsoo scowls at him, so Baekhyun kisses his frown, a brief press of lips. "I kept hedgehogs when I was little. Took care of three male ones when they got kicked out of their nest."

"That's what I remind you of?" Kyungsoo looks like he's not sure whether he should be offended or not. Baekhyun chuckles, and rolls off Kyungsoo, back to lying beside him, his head resting at the soft place just above Kyungsoo's armpit. "A hedgehog?"

"Yup." Baekhyun puts his arm across Kyungsoo, just below his ribs, so that he rises and falls with Kyungsoo's breaths. "I really like hedgehogs."

"You're disgusting," Kyungsoo says, but Baekhyun can hear him smiling. "Really."

"You adore me," replies Baekhyun, closing his eyes. He spreads his focus, so that he can notice everything. The ribbing of Kyungsoo's shirt is probably leaving marks on his cheek that'll be prominent in the morning.

"I'm a masochist, clearly," Kyungsoo says, but his hand finds its way back into Baekhyun's hair.

This small bubble of happiness is something Baekhyun will cherish, later. The perfect heart of Kyungsoo's smile and the comforting feeling of Kyungsoo's warmth beneath him.

"Thank you, Baekhyun," Kyungsoo says, when they've turned out the lights and Baekhyun is nearly asleep.

"You're welcome," Baekhyun says, and if he sleeps now, maybe his longing will sleep with him.

⚘❁⚘

The last thing Kyungsoo does is take off his coat. Well, Baekhyun's coat, really. He trades it for his own coat, chic and tailored, and it seems to weigh him down, like he's putting on some of the Kyungsoo who'd come in November.

"Thank you for letting me borrow it," Kyungsoo says, handing it back to Baekhyun. Baekhyun accepts it with hesitant hands, taking in the way the wool coat makes Kyungsoo look sharper, older.

"No problem," Baekhyun says. "It looks cuter on you than it looked on me, anyway."

"I'm not cute," Kyungsoo says, archly, and Baekhyun gives him a tiny smile.

"That's _your_ opinion." Baekhyun drops the coat to the floor, and grabs both of Kyungsoo's lapels, pulling him close. "My opinion is that you can't help but be accidentally cute sometimes."

Kyungsoo glares at him, and Baekhyun laughs, fitting against Kyungsoo and kissing him, one last time, Kyungsoo's plush mouth warm and wanting against his own.

He cups Baekhyun's face in his hands, his hold just slightly too tight, and kisses him back. Baekhyun closes his eyes as their mouths move together, Kyungsoo's tongue curling into his mouth, behind his teeth, stroking at the palate of his mouth as his hands become fists holding on to Kyungsoo's lapels.

Baekhyun never wants it to end, but it does, Kyungsoo's hands falling from his cheeks and Baekhyun's hands unfurling from the wool. Baekhyun smoothes Kyungsoo's coat with anxious hands, eyes lifting to meet Kyungsoo's and hold them.

"For the road," Baekhyun says, quietly, and Kyungsoo licks his lips and offers up one of those tiny smiles of his, where just one corner of his mouth lifts.

Kyungsoo's suitcase goes in the trunk, and his duffel goes in the backseat, and that's it. The winter disappears into Kyungsoo's car, and soon Kyungsoo will disappear along with it.

"That's it," Kyungsoo says, and Baekhyun reaches into his pocket and pulls out a white packet, still sealed, with a green label. He pushes it into Kyungsoo's hand, and Kyungsoo leans back against the driver's side door and examines it. "What… Ogalpi?"

"If you ever feel like you need a little bit of magic to put you back together," Baekhyun says, voice wobbling, "now you have some ogalpi of your own."

"Baekhyun…" Kyungsoo says. He keeps his eyes straight forward, just over Baekhyun's shoulder, and his mouth is set firmly in a straight line. Baekhyun wants to kiss him so badly he can't think, can't breathe. "I'll use it well."

"If you run out," Baekhyun says, "you can always come back and I'll give you more."

"I know," Kyungsoo says. He still won't look at Baekhyun. Baekhyun's chest is so tight. "I… know."

"Drive safely," Baekhyun says. "Do you wanna take your helmet?" He tries to tease, tries his very best, but the words come out garbled and wet.

"Shut up, Byun Baekhyun," Kyungsoo says, with a slight waver. He pushes off from the car and opens the door, finally meeting Baekhyun's eyes. "You punk."

"I think you like punks," Baekhyun says, hands in his pockets.

"Maybe I do," Kyungsoo says, and then he gets in the car. The engine comes on, and Baekhyun steps back: one step, two steps, three. Kyungsoo's reverse lights come on.

Baekhyun watches him go, down the driveway, just like he and Kyungsoo had watched Joonmyun and Jongin drive away two weeks ago. He squats down where he stands and hugs his knees, resting his forehead against them, and takes long, slow breaths.

He'd known this was coming, but he hadn't anticipated how much it would ache. It's not a punch to the stomach, but the bruise that lingers afterwards, burning with every inhale and exhale, burning even when he takes no breath at all. There's the memory of Kyungsoo's lips and the echo of Kyungsoo's sharp laugh and the remnants of Kyungsoo's soft evening whispers, and all of them resound inside Baekhyun's head, like the trees at night through the wood of the guesthouse.

One more ghost, Baekhyun thinks. One more ghost.

He doesn't know how long he crouches there, out in front of the guesthouse, with his eyes closed, shaking as the wind picks up, but it is a good while.

When he goes back inside, the tips of his fingers are numb. He wishes his insides were numb as well, but they aren't.

⚘❁⚘

Mocha's body shifts beneath Baekhyun as they ride, the sun bright overhead as they pick their way into a more difficult section of trail. "It's been a while since we've been riding, just you and me," says Chanyeol. He's wearing the regulation red vest, and no riding helmet.

"It's not really just you and me," Baekhyun says, looking over his shoulder. Soojung and Jongdae are a few meters behind them, their ponies walking together. Soojung's hair has faded from fire-red to a pink, but she still looks like a warrior goddess, in Baekhyun's opinion. Jongdae is sparkling at her, and Baekhyun smiles. "We do have the lovebirds back there."

"Jealous?" Chanyeol asks, leading Makki ahead as they cross through a narrow gap in a stone fence.

"Only a little," Baekhyun says, grinning at Chanyeol. "Not jealous enough to ride back there between them just to get on their nerves though."

Chanyeol chuckles, shaking his head. He's cut his hair again, and his ears stick out. He's wearing the Nexan cap Baekhyun gave him. "Still," he says. "The last time I got you out on horseback was when we took Kyungsoo out."

"That's true," Baekhyun says. "I'm sorry?"

"We're here now. I've been meaning to talk to you anyway."

"About what?" Baekhyun pulls on Mocha's reins lightly to slow her down, and she shakes her butt in protest. "One at a time, girl." He pats her neck gently before straightening back up.

"I've been kind of worried about you this week," says Chanyeol. "I didn't want to say anything in front of Jongdae, in case his leaving was why, and this is the first chance I've had to ask."

"Nothing's wrong," says Baekhyun. "I'm just…" It's been a week, but he can still taste coffee lips, and the dull pain in his chest still lingers. "I'm just being silly."

"It's never silly to miss someone," Chanyeol says, when Baekhyun's pulled Mocha up to walk in stride with Makki again. Soojung laughs behind them, and Baekhyun turns around to see Jongdae dodging one of her playful swats. "No matter how long they'll be gone." He smiles at Baekhyun. "Or how long you've known them."

Baekhyun swallows, looking away from Chanyeol, whose gaze is just a tad too knowing for Baekhyun to ignore the implications. "It's silly to miss something you knew was temporary, right?" His voice carries more than he'd like it to, because there's a lull in the wind.

"Nope," Chanyeol says. "Wrong. You're all heart, Baekhyunnie. That's why people feel so comfortable around you. Because they look at you and can see you holding out everything, take it or leave it."

"I don't want to regret anything," says Baekhyun. "I want to make the most of the time people give me." Jongdae makes a loud whine of protest behind them, at something Soojung says that Baekhyun hadn't made out, and it's one of the sounds that would definitely be on the soundtrack of Baekhyun's childhood if Baekhyun were ever to put one together. "Because eventually…" _They'll leave_ , he finishes in his head.

Chanyeol puffs out his cheeks, and cuts his gaze over to Baekhyun. "Life is always moving forward," he says. "I had to leave my old home to start a new one here. People do that."

"Not me," Baekhyun says. "Other people do that, but not me." He eases Mocha into a faster trot, and Chanyeol keeps pace. The wind blows, and the grass ripples. It's beautiful today. Every day, really, because even on the gray days, Baekhyun can look out at the ocean and find the loveliness in it. "I stay here, waiting for other people's lives to pass through mine. Away from mine."

"Don't look at it like that," Chanyeol says. "Think about it like seasons."

"The seasons?"

"Like, as the Earth rotates around the sun, it's also tilting on its own axis, and suddenly, this part of the world is receiving—"

"No one cares about the Earth's rotation," Baekhyun interrupts, and Chanyeol laughs.

"Okay, then, in summary," says Chanyeol, still smiling, his cheeks dimpling as he leans over to pull on Baekhyun's ball cap, "soon winter is going to end, and it'll be spring, right?"

"Right," Baekhyun says.

"But the Earth is still rotating. It doesn't stop there, just because winter is gone, and eventually, next year, there will be winter again," says Chanyeol. "And the year after that, too. You're not saying goodbye to winter forever. You've still got a whole life ahead of you, with so many more winters." He adjusts himself on Makki, and she tosses her hair. "Who's to say that one of those winters, you won't meet again?" He laughs sheepishly. "Or something like that."

Baekhyun looks out ahead of them, at the sea of grass, and the sparse line of trees, and the deer that roam free. Winter on Jeju is never silent, never too cold for life to thrive.

"Cheesy, Park," Baekhyun says, as he edges Mocha forward. He wrinkles his nose at Chanyeol, who laughs at him. "Also, as usual, unnecessarily full of science."

"All I'm saying is, you gotta stop thinking of the relationships you have as temporary and the separations as permanent," Chanyeol replies. "Don't you know it can be the other way around?"

It would be easier to believe that, Baekhyun thinks, if his time with Kyungsoo hadn't felt like something stolen from Kyungsoo's real life, far away in Seoul. If there was an end date to Jongdae's time away, like when they'd gone off to serve, or if Soojung's visits didn't feel so short. If Yixing's promises to visit ever came to fruition. If Baekbeom could bear to spend more than a few days on this island a year, or maybe if Baekhyun didn't live alone up in the guesthouse he's inherited, with the ghosts of so many people everywhere he looks, seeing them in rooms and on hiking trails and in convenience stores, shadows of the things he used to have, like someone making noise in the kitchen before he wakes up.

A part of Baekhyun still hopes for these things. Still longs.

"Maybe you're right," Baekhyun says. "It's not like I'm going anywhere. Guess time will tell."

"You could go somewhere," Chanyeol says.

"I could never sell the guesthouse. Or close it. My family's buried on this land, Chanyeollie." Mocha whinnies, and Baekhyun realizes he's pressing his knees in too tight. "Spirits get restless when left alone."

"So do people," says Chanyeol. Baekhyun winces. "No one said anything about selling it, anyway. Go to China and see Yixing. Heck, go visit Jongdae in Seoul. Just go somewhere that's not the navy base or Seogwipeo-si."

"Honestly?" Baekhyun says, looking down at Mocha. "I'm scared to."

"Why?" Chanyeol rests one hand on his thigh, his loose grip on the reins getting even looser. "You won't get that lost. Cities can be loud, but you should fit right in." He laughs at his own joke, but peters off when Baekhyun doesn't join him like he usually would. "Baekhyun?"

"I'm scared I won't want to come back," Baekhyun says. "I'm scared if I go and do that stuff, I'll realize that—" _This isn't enough for me_ he hears in his head, in Jongdae's voice. "Well, that maybe I _would_ fit right in, in a city."

Chanyeol's eyebrows furrow, and Baekhyun chuckles.

"Now _that_ ," Baekhyun adds, "really is silly."

He pulls Mocha into a turn, walking her back to where Soojung and Jongdae are.

"You guys are slow," Baekhyun says. "It might be March already by the time we get out to the end of this trail at your speed."

Jongdae grins at him, wind having given him a pink color in his high cheekbones. "We're just enjoying the view," he says. "I'm trying to paint it on my brain, for later."

They watch the sunset from the end of the trail, and make their way back to the stable in the twilight. Jongdeok had dropped them off, and Jongdae calls him while they brush the horses down. Baekhyun feeds Mocha too many treats, and Chanyeol clicks his tongue chidingly against the back of his teeth but doesn't stop Baekhyun from doing it.

Jongdae jumps onto Baekhyun's back as they exit the stable house, and Baekhyun struggles to carry him piggyback all the way to the car. "You're lucky I like you," Baekhyun says, when Jongdae slides down, Soojung following closely behind them, probably shaking her head and muttering _"boys"_ under her breath.

They eat dinner together, the three of them, at the Jung house. Old Man Jung quizzes Jongdae about school, and Jongdae gives earnest excited answers. Soojung grabs Jongdae's hand under the table, and it makes Baekhyun smile, if a little sadly. He doesn't feel like a third wheel: it's only that he wishes… It had been nice, when he could link his hand with Kyungsoo's under the table, or feel the brush of Kyungsoo's ankle against his own.

Baekhyun feels stupid, for being so sad. Guests come and go. He's supposed to be used to it.

He spends the rest of the night trying to fix, in his mind, the way Jongdae laughs when he's embarrassed, and the way his eyebrows lift when he sends Baekhyun conspiratorial looks.

When he gets home, he fumbles with the light in the hallway. It flickers immediately to life. Kyungsoo had supervised Chanyeol changing it. Baekhyun has to pause, pressing his fist to his stomach to take away some of the disquiet. After shedding his coat and shoes, he pulls out his big ring of keys and unlocks the front hall cabinet and pulls out his netbook for the first time in a week.

He takes it back to his room and plugs it in, stripping as it powers on. When he comes back, damp and clean, the netbook is on and ready for him. Baekhyun brings up his e-mail, surprised to see four new messages.

There's one from Baekbeom, that their dad is doing well. Baekbeom includes a picture of him smiling along with Baekbeom's girlfriend. Baekbeom's thumb is the corner of the picture, and it makes Baekhyun laugh. _Come visit_ is the post-script, and Baekhyun still can't believe that Baekbeom is actually trying. He replies to that one before moving on to the next two e-mails, that are both from Yixing.

The first of those is about music, Yixing musing about a show he and Lu Han had played, and a few new friends they'd made at a particular night club that Yixing _"can't wait to show Baekhyun someday"_. The second message is shorter, more to the point, about how Yixing's lost the slip with Jongdae's address again, and would he mind resending it?

Baekhyun clicks out of that message, and then his eyes fall to the last one.

The last e-mail is from Do Kyungsoo. It's dated three days ago, and the subject line is just a period, no words. With trepidation, Baekhyun clicks it, unsure of what could possibly be inside. It's an image: it takes a few seconds to load, appearing in increments thanks to Baekhyun's slow internet, and Baekhyun's breath catches in his throat when he realizes what it is.

It's their selca, in front of Cheonjiyeon. There's no message, just the picture, big enough to fill Baekhyun's whole netbook screen. Kyungsoo is smiling in it, and Baekhyun's nose is so red. Their cheeks are pressed together, and Baekhyun can remember this moment exactly. His hand comes up to clutch at his chest, because suddenly it burns, acid spilling outward from his heart to fill his torso, eating away at his ribs.

He looks at the picture for some time, and then he clicks reply. _Aren't I cute?_ he types, adding two sunshine characters, and then he sends it. He closes his netbook, dully getting up from his desk and falling into his bedding.

Baekhyun curls up in the fetal position amongst his blankets that still smell like Kyungsoo's aftershave, and almost laughs, because who's the hedgehog now? But he's afraid if he laughs, it might turn into crying, and Baekhyun absolutely refuses to cry.

He stays awake most of the night. It isn't windy at all, so the guesthouse is silent.

⚘❁⚘

In the morning, he checks his e-mail again. There's a new one from Kyungsoo. Baekhyun bites his lip and opens it. It's another picture, this time of Baekhyun asleep on his _Learn Chinese!_ textbook, mouth open and hair an absolute mess.

This picture… it's from near the beginning of Kyungsoo's stay at the guesthouse, when Baekhyun had first given him access to the router and Kyungsoo had tucked him in. Baekhyun hadn't known Kyungsoo had taken any pictures of him at all.

His stomach hurts. Baekhyun bites his lip, and blinks quickly, until his eyes stop stinging.

The text under it says _"Not cute at all,"_ and the only thing Baekhyun can think about is all the ways Kyungsoo kissed him, and how much he wants to kiss him again.

⚘❁⚘

He runs into Kim Taeyeon on his way down to the fish market by the docks. Her hair is loose today, blowing in her face, and Baekhyun laughingly pushes it out of her eyes. "Long time no see," she says to him, and he grins at her.

"Don't worry," he says. "I'll probably show up at your house sometime soon, asking for a haircut."

"I figured you would," she says. "Still, I haven't run into you anywhere I usually do."

"I hear you've been busier," Baekhyun says, with a sly smile and a wink, and she laughs and slaps his arm lightly.

"Didn't think you'd tease me about that, Baekhyunnie." She glares up at him. "Minseok and I get it a lot already."

"I tease everyone, noona. No one is safe." Baekhyun puts his hands into the back pockets of his jeans, and Taeyeon loops her arm through his, since they're walking in the same direction. "Besides, you and Minseok-hyung are like a drama couple or something. I have to tease you. It's little brother law."

"Law, huh?" She laughs. "Well, if it's _law_ …" She looks up at him. She always makes Baekhyun feels so tall. So does Soojung, but Taeyeon is especially small. "I guess I like having a little brother enough that I'll let the teasing pass." Baekhyun chuckles, and Taeyeon gives him a speculative look. "You know, I used to think you had a crush on me."

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," Baekhyun says, nonchalant, but then he winks at her, and she slaps his forearm harder this time.

"It was either me or Minseok," she says. "Since you looked at us the same way."

"I never really thought about it," Baekhyun says, looking forward to where Minseok is approaching them. "Well, noona, this is your stop."

"Don't forget to drop by sometime next week so I can get your fringe out of your pretty eyes," she replies, releasing his arm.

"I won't," Baekhyun says, watching her go. Minseok's arm fits right around her waist.

Baekhyun buys enough fish for the next few days, enough to feed himself and maybe a wayward Park Chanyeol, and flirts outrageously with the haenyeo instead of looking for Taeyeon or Minseok down on the docks.

On the way home, though, he thinks about Kyungsoo, and about Kyungsoo's smile.

⚘❁⚘

Jongdae's full backpack makes him look like an elementary schooler. His other bag is stuffed to the brim as well, so heavy his fingers are turning white.

"Text when you get to Jeju-si," his mother says, kissing both of his cheeks. It's just the three of them waiting at the bus stop. They'd had a goodbye party yesterday at the restaurant, and Jongdae had discreetly cried. Baekhyun had used Chanyeol's phone to take HQ pictures of it and sent them to Soojung. _this is ur man,_ he'd written in English as the subject line. She'd texted Baekhyun back on his own phone, because Chanyeol obviously hadn't sent them, with the message _Dreamboat!_ and then sent a follow up text that said _get a real phone so you can send your own pictures, oppa._

"I will, I will," Jongdae says. The bus has just become visible, approaching the stop. Baekhyun adjusts Jongdae's KIA cap.

"You're going to miss baseball season, you know," he says to Jongdae, and Jongdae grins at him.

"No way," he says. "Maybe you should learn how to use videochat on that old netbook of yours so we can still watch together."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says, shoving Jongdae. "Get on the bus, before I refuse to let you leave."

"I love you, Baekhyunnie," Jongdae says. "Okay?" The bus pulls to a stop, doors wheezing open.

"I know that, loser," Baekhyun says, averting his eyes. "What's not to love?"

"What about me?" Jongdae's mother jokes. "Do I at least get second place?"

"Don't be silly," Jongdae says, "you're my _mom_. Moms don't get ranked, they're above and beyond the rank."

Baekhyun smiles and waves until Jongdae's safely on the bus, and keeps waving as the doors close and it starts to move.

He watches the bus until it disappears. Jongdae's mom wraps an arm around his waist. "You're the only kid left, Baekhyunnie," she says, and Baekhyun pulls the brim of his baseball cap down to hide his wet eyes.

"Not really a kid anymore," he replies, gruffly, and she squeezes his waist once before letting go.

"I guess not," she says, her own expression watery. "Come back to the restaurant for lunch?"

"Absolutely," Baekhyun says, giving her the best smile he's got at the moment. "I can never turn down your cooking, Mom."

"You think you can still charm me after all these years, Baekhyun?" She smiles just like Jongdae, or Jongdae smiles just like her, and either way, Baekhyun wishes Jongdae wasn't on that bus, riding away from the village and away from Baekhyun. It hurts differently than watching Kyungsoo leave had hurt, because Baekhyun had never expected Kyungsoo to stay, but both departures have left a big fat hollowness in his chest. "I've been dealing with you since you only came up to my hip."

"That's why I know exactly what to say," Baekhyun tells her, throwing an arm over her shoulder. "Lunch?" He doesn't want to go back to the lonely guesthouse just yet.

"Lunch," she agrees, leaning into him.

Late that night, Baekhyun sits down with his netbook in the main room and writes a long and winding e-mail to Yixing. He looks out the window, out at the trees, and his fingers hesitate over the keys. He's suddenly out of words. _I'm really lonely,_ he'd like to write. _I miss so many people, and I'm not sure if they miss me even half as much._ Yixing would probably understand. He'd nod at Baekhyun solemnly and then stay up way too late playing his guitar until Baekhyun fell asleep curled up at his feet. Instead, he writes about Taeyeon and Minseok, and about how cute they look together, and then throws in a joke about having to find a new crush. There's no reason to make Yixing worry.

There's another e-mail from Kyungsoo. It's a third picture, this time of Oedeolgae, lonely out in the water, and no text under it at all.

Baekhyun wonders how long it'll take before he stops listening for Kyungsoo's even breathing as he falls asleep.

⚘❁⚘

The tilefish start to swim in toward the island in late February, long before the oceans warm but right when the wind loses some of its winter bite.

The chamomile begins to bloom in earnest, covering the fields out past the shrine with pale yellow flowers, and giving Baekhyun something to do with the last of his empty days before the hikers start to show up.

Back when Yixing lived here, Baekhyun used to take him along. He and Yixing would spend hours out helping Aunty Lee in the field. Yixing would work diligently, with a firm singlemindedness, while Baekhyun would tell him stories, about the history of chamomile or about his grandmother or about Aunty Lee and how her family had owned the farm for generations. Yixing would humor him, letting Baekhyun talk and talk and talk, occasionally asking what different words meant, and Baekhyun would give nonsensical explanations that usually involved more sounds than vocabulary Yixing would actually know.

Sometimes, even though Yixing has been gone for a while now, Baekhyun will get into the groove, catching the blossoms in his gloves as he combs through the stalks, and start talking like he's still right next to him. He usually catches himself right at the punchline of a joke, and then bites down on his lower lip to keep the rest of the words in.

At night, Baekhyun tries to keep in contact with Jongdae, exchanging messages with him every evening before he sleeps.

He keeps getting e-mails from Kyungsoo, too. Baekhyun tries to reply to them as flippantly as they're probably sent, since often Kyungsoo's e-mails are just two short sentences that say _"work is busy. How is the weather?"_ but somehow he can't help but ramble, even in e-mails. He wonders if Kyungsoo even reads them all the way through. He probably does, since Kyungsoo always listens all the way through. It's one of the things Baekhyun likes so much about him.

The rest of his time is spent with Chanyeol, who is as loud as Baekhyun, and bouncy and bright enough to push in on the edges of Baekhyun's loneliness until it's a small ball at the center of his chest that he can ignore until nighttime, when he wants to go to bed. Then he lies staring up at the ceiling, and listening to the trees, and there's nothing to distract him from it at all.

At the very beginning of March, Soojung comes to visit. They go down to the inlet, and they sit amongst the rocks as she tells him about her program, and all about her new school in Texas. Baekhyun asks her questions, about what kind of stuff she's studying and if she's going to start talking like Chanyeol does, and she laughs at him, shoving him lightly as the waves rise with the tide.

"You doing all right out here?" she asks, on their way back to the village, her arm linked with his, just like always. "Jongdae-oppa is worried about you. I guess I am too."

"You don't need to be," Baekhyun says. "This is my home. Why wouldn't I be okay?"

She smiles at him, not her sarcastic smile but a real one. "I'll pass the message on," she says, tossing her long hair, now a dark red the color of pomegranates, over her shoulder.

Later that night, Baekhyun thinks he didn't really lie to her. This is his home. He'd never expected so many pieces of his home to drift away, like broken off pieces of rock at the edges of the cliff, but he still wakes up to the prettiest views out of his kitchen window, and to the wind, and to camphor. He still brings in laundry that smells like ocean salt, and he still has dinner with Jongdae's mom when he can't bear the thought of cooking for himself.

Maybe, he thinks, it's like a quilt with holes: A quilt he's had for years and years, that he can't replace even as it becomes more and more threadbare, and a quilt he isn't quite sure how to repair.

He pulls open his netbook, and opens the picture of Kyungsoo and him in front of that waterfall, and thinks, maybe, for a little while, when he'd had Kyungsoo here, had Kyungsoo to show his island to, his quilt had felt brand new again.

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun gets the message to report for inactive duty training sometime in the month of March. He gets these summons once a year, and it's usually less than a full weekend of a Basic rehash, complete with yelling officers who tell Baekhyun to _"stop smiling so much, you sarcastic little shit, this isn't a game"_ and make all of the former enlistees stand in the gas barrel pose for old time's sake while they sing Haegunga at the tops of their lungs.

But for the first time, Baekhyun's not being sent to Mokpo to do his stint. Instead he's being sent all the way to Incheon.

Incheon's pretty close, he thinks, to Seoul.

He thinks about it for a few days, as he goes about his routine. He's started keeping all the doors open in the guesthouse again, as the weather warms, and it hasn't rained in days, so Baekhyun airs out the entire guesthouse. He recruits Chanyeol to help him move Baekbeom's desk back into his room, and finally cleans out Kyungsoo's room. Honestly, Kyungsoo hadn't left much evidence of his presence behind, but that makes it harder for Baekhyun to erase the few things that had remained, like blankets folded into perfect squares that he has to wash, or the way Kyungsoo had moved the picture Baekhyun had kept off-center on the back wall right to the center. Baekhyun is almost tempted to leave that, but it's like ripping off a Band-Aid, right?

Only after it's all done, and Baekhyun's run out of things to do to get the guesthouse ready for spring, the emptiness chews away at him, eating up parts of him that he can't afford to lose.

He takes a walk, his phone in his pocket, going down to the village and buying himself a meat bun from the convenience store. He sits on the rock wall outside Jongdae's family's house and dials his cell phone number from memory instead of picking it out from his contacts list.

"Baekhyunnie?" Jongdae asks, sounding pleased. "You _called_ me."

"Got my inactive duty notice," Baekhyun says. "It looks like I have to head to Incheon. You wouldn't happen to want a guest afterwards, would you?"

Baekhyun's anxious just thinking about it, but the chance to see Jongdae… It's the perfect opportunity, really, and it would be ridiculous not to take it.

"I'd love to have you," replies Jongdae, and Baekhyun smiles at the excitement in his voice.

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun gets lost. It's not surprising, probably. It's more like a comedy of errors, and it will be funny when he retells it, but right now, he's exhausted and nervous. He'd left the base three hours ago, after thirty-six excruciating hours, of which he'd slept less than eight, and he has a cramp in his back and his whole body aches. It's a Friday afternoon, so the crowds are a crush, and Baekhyun's in a city he's never been to with no idea where he is.

He calls Jongdae in a panic, and Jongdae, who is waiting for him at the bus stop he should have arrived at, laughs at him, after he's sure Baekhyun's all right. "Just give a taxi driver my address," Jongdae says, and Baekhyun sighs.

"Like I know your address," Baekhyun says, waspishly, and Jongdae keeps laughing.

"Catch a cab, and I'll tell the driver where to go."

Baekhyun manages to find the one person more talkative than he is. His taxi driver is curious, engaging him in conversation as he tries to take note of the landmarks and things like that he can see out of the window. The hills are so much more dramatic here: Jeju's hills are subtle, looking as much like waves as the ones on the sea, but Seoul is all steep inclines and sharp corners.

"So you've never been to Seoul before?" the chatty driver asks, and Baekhyun shakes his head.

"No," he says, watching streets pass out the window. "My first visit."

The taxi driver goes on and on about places Baekhyun _has_ to visit, and usually Baekhyun would be giving it back as good as he's getting it, but there's a heavy exhaustion resting in him that he can't fight off right now.

He thanks the driver when he sees Jongdae out the window, telling him to pull over on the street corner where Jongdae is waiting with a messenger bag and a huge grin.

"Finally," Jongdae says. "I thought I was going to have to go to work before you even got here."

"I came all the way to the other side of the country to visit you, and you have work?"

"Just a two hour shift I couldn't get out of," Jongdae says. "For my part-time." He pinches Baekhyun's skin just above the elbow. "You'll survive without me. I have cable."

"Living the good life, huh?" Baekhyun replies, and Jongdae laughs at him. It feels a bit like waking up from a long sleep, hearing Jongdae laugh. Baekhyun wonders when, exactly, he'd fallen asleep.

Jongdae takes Baekhyun back to his apartment, a small one room in a tall building. "Lots of students here," Jongdae says. "It's either here or at a hasukjib. Prices are really high in this area but it's not so bad."

He punches in a code to open his door when they get to his room on the ninth floor. There's a small entryway. The room itself is small, just a big bed and a television, and a desk where Jongdae has what looks like math homework spread out across it. Baekhyun's mouth curls in disgust at the very idea of math as he pushes off his sneakers. Walking in, he sees that Jongdae's put up pictures of Baekhyun and Chanyeol and Soojung, on his wall, right next to the pictures of his mom and brother, and he smiles, his heart clenching.

"Wow, I'm the best looking of the people you hang out with, for sure," he says, to cover up the surge of emotion, and Jongdae walks over to his refrigerator and pulls out a water pitcher.

"You want some water to wash away your delusions, Baekhyunnie?"

Baekhyun laughs, then lifts his shirt so he can scratch his bare stomach. "Yeah. Mind if I take a shower?"

"Sure," Jongdae says. "Water's not as hard to come by. I take the longest showers in the morning, even though it inflates my bills."

After Baekhyun's shower, he and Jongdae go out. Jongdae laughs as Baekhyun repeatedly scans his new T-Money card wrong and walks into the turnstile when they go on the subway.

Jongdae shows him the palace, and points out Namsan tower. "We don't really have time to go there right now," he says. "Maybe tonight?"

"Sounds great." Baekhyun pulls his baseball cap lower over his wet hair. "Kyungsoo said you can see the whole city from up there."

"You can," Jongdae replies. "An awesome view. Went up there with Soojung when she visited me right after I moved in. We left a lock on the fence."

"How romantic~" Baekhyun teases, and Jongdae slugs him.

"Oh, speaking of Kyungsoo," Jongdae says, and Baekhyun's stomach swoops unexpectedly, "I figured we could meet Joonmyun-hyung for lunch?"

"Joonmyun…hyung?" Baekhyun raises both brows, and Jongdae grins.

"Yeah, I've been seeing a lot of him, actually. Sometimes he even helps me with my homework! He's not that much older than we are, you know, just a couple of years. Anyway, I promised I'd have lunch with him this week, and it's pretty much the end of the week. Plus, when I said you'd be in town, he mentioned that he'd really like to see you if we had time."

"It's fine with me," Baekhyun says.

They meet Joonmyun at a place fifteen minutes away, after an intense five minutes of haggling over the phone in which Jongdae whines a lot. Baekhyun laughs, holding on to the strap of Jongdae's bag as he absently guides Baekhyun through the crowd of people. Jongdae doesn't seem to notice the press is so thick, and Baekhyun can't tell if the crowd only seems this big because he's so tired or if it's because there really are that many people.

Joonmyun is exactly as Baekhyun remembered him. He's dressed up more, his hair so neat and his suit pressed, and he smiles at them as his watch catches the sunlight and gleams.

He orders for all of them, big bowls of cold noodles with lots of vegetables mixed into it. Baekhyun frowns down at the cucumbers until Jongdae picks them out, and then he eats it all as Joonmyun and Jongdae chat about what they did this morning, Baekhyun taking over after he's gulped down all of his noodles.

As lunch winds down, Jongdae checks his phone. "It's getting late," he says. "I have work, so I need to put Baekhyunnie back in my room in front of the TV so it can talk to him while I'm gone."

"I'm not a houseplant," Baekhyun says, and Joonmyun chuckles.

"You should come back to the firm with me, Baekhyun," Joonmyun says, and Baekhyun rests his cheek on his hand.

"Aren't you busy?" Baekhyun asks, and Joonmyun laughs.

"We're always busy," Joonmyun says, "but there's plenty to see? Besides, I think Kyungsoo would really like to see you."

"You think?" Baekhyun isn't so sure about that. Kyungsoo's e-mails are always so short, in comparison to Baekhyun's long ones, and Baekhyun worries that he's being annoying. It's not like Kyungsoo owes him anything. He'd paid before he left and he'd never promised Baekhyun anything at all.

"I know, actually," Joonmyun says. "He's rather fond of you, you know."

"You should definitely go," Jongdae says. "I have work all afternoon, so I'll call you when I get out and I'll pick you up and take you back to my place so you don't get lost again."

"Again?" Joonmyun laughs. "You should tell me all about your adventure on the way to the office."

"So you're saying I don't really have a choice about this field trip," Baekhyun replies, and Joonmyun shakes his head.

"You'll like the firm," Joonmyun says. "You're only here for the weekend, right?"

"I'm leaving tomorrow morning," Baekhyun says. "I was just here for inactive duty training."

"I'm exempt until I finish college," Jongdae says, throwing an arm around Baekhyun as they walk up to the front counter to pay for their meal. "You should be jealous."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says. "But I had to get yelled at and exercise for forty-eight hours, and you have to go to school for years. Who's really winning?"

"Me," Jongdae says, squeezing Baekhyun's shoulder, as he reaches into his bag for his wallet with the other hand.

"It's on me," Joonmyun says, and Jongdae smiles. "Thanks, hyung," he says, and Baekhyun grins.

"Now I know why Jongdae's friends with you," Baekhyun says. "A high roller. The real question is why are you friends with Jongdae, hyung?"

"Oh, he's a little cute," Joonmyun says. "He and Jongin make up for all the pouting Kyungsoo won't do. I need a few transparent dongsaengs."

"Right," Baekhyun says.

Jongdae waves goodbye to them, heading down the road toward a bus stop as Joonmyun hails himself and Baekhyun a taxi. He says an address to the driver, who nods, seeming to know the location, and then sits back and grins at Baekhyun. "So tell me how you got lost--" He stops, and tilts his head at Baekhyun with concern. "Why the serious face?"

"Are you sure this is fine?" Baekhyun asks, and Joonmyun pats the back of his hand.

"Kyungsoo really misses you," Joonmyun says. "I mean it. I know he isn't the best, sometimes, about being clear regarding things like that, but he really does."

"That doesn't mean he wants me to show up at his job," Baekhyun mumbles, and Joonmyun gives him a sharp look. "Especially without warning." Baekhyun doesn't expect Kyungsoo to want to be ambushed by someone who is supposed to be on an island far away.

Joonmyun hesitates, turning his eyes toward the taxi driver, who doesn't seem remotely interested in them, not like Baekhyun's taxi driver earlier. "All of Kyungsoo's friends know his preferences," Joonmyun says quietly, and Baekhyun swallows, his hands tightening on his knees in shock as his heart starts to beat faster. "And Jongin and I both thought, maybe…" Joonmyun pauses, and then approaches the next part even more delicately, not that it does much to ward off Baekhyun's anxiousness. "I'm not sure if you have that kind of relationship or not, but..."

"We don't have any kind of relationship," Baekhyun says, not even believing the tone of his own voice. Too high, too weird. "He just needed a friend in Jeju, and I was there, and pushy. I know he has friends here, and he doesn't need--"

"If Kyungsoo didn't like you," Joonmyun says, "he wouldn't have given you the time of day. Sometimes that makes him seem cold, but he's honest with his affections."

Baekhyun knows that. He knows Kyungsoo wanted him, kissed him with sincerity. In the end, though, it had remained unspoken between them that it was temporary. That's why Kyungsoo hadn't wanted Jongdae to know, after all. It doesn't make sense, knowing that, to ambush Kyungsoo like this, when he's not expecting Baekhyun at all. "Yeah," Baekhyun says, and Joonmyun pats his hand again.

"So, don't worry," Joonmyun says. "It's just saying hello."

"Okay," Baekhyun says, as the taxi pulls over. Joonmyun hands a 5000won bill to the driver, and pushes Baekhyun out onto the sidewalk, climbing out behind him. He straightens his tie, his fingers smoothing the knot, and then pulls out a badge.

"It's just this way," he says. "Follow me."

The building they stop in front of is tall and impressive, and Baekhyun looks around either side of them, at the crush of people and the honking horns and the high school students just getting out of classes in their mix of uniforms. It's not as overwhelming as it had been earlier, when Baekhyun had been trying to find the right bus in a horde of people who all knew where they were going, but it still feels like so much input.

"This is our firm," Joonmyun says, pulling Baekhyun out of his thoughts. "Doesn't that sound official?"

He guides Baekhyun in through the high glass doors, into a lobby where a security guard nods to Joonmyun and gives Baekhyun a curious look. Baekhyun pulls on the waistband of his sweatshirt nervously, and licks at the corner of his mouth to check for food. Joonmyun grabs his sleeve and tugs him along to an elevator, pressing his badge to the scanner above the button until it makes a loud beep, the red light turning green and the doors opening. They get in, and Baekhyun realizes he's standing in front of the elevator buttons. "Three," Joonmyun says, and Baekhyun nods.

The doors open to reveal a bustling room filled with oversized tables. The two closest to the elevator are empty, but behind that, Baekhyun can see papers spread out across all of the others, oversized like the plans that Kyungsoo'd had with him, and had spread across two desks and the kitchen table. "This is..." Baekhyun gestures widely, unsure of the words he wants.

"Different to what you expected?" asks Joonmyun, and Baekhyun looks up, at the high ceilings. No wonder Joonmyun had found the buildings in Jeolbyeog-ri so weird, if every day he looks up to this. "The computer cubicles are up a few floors."

"I don't think I expected anything," Baekhyun says, smiling at him, "but this place is cool."

"We don't usually bring visitors here," Joonmyun says, navigating between tables, Baekhyun close behind him. "This is drafting. Jonginnie's over there." He points to the back of the room, where Jongin is stooped over a table. His dress shirt has the sleeves pushed up, and his tie is loose, knotted halfway down. He's wearing only two wristbands today, probably because they drag across the paper as he annotates computer-printed plans of some kind, smearing the pencil. "Jonginnie, look what I found."

Jongin looks up, and he looks older today, with his slicked back hair. "Oh," he says, before he smiles. "Hey there."

"Hey," Baekhyun says, as Jongin sets his pencil down and then links his fingers above his head, stretching. "Surprise?"

"Does hyung know you're here?" Jongin asks, and Baekhyun shakes his head.

"I didn't plan this," he says. "I didn't even know it wasn't going to be just me and Jongdae at lunch." He laughs. "So..."

"You were in Seoul and you weren't planning to come visit?" Jongin pouts. "Why not?"

Baekhyun scratches his stomach. "I don't know," he says. "I didn't think..." It's not like he'd expected an invitation. He hadn't even really planned to come at all.

"Kyungsoo-hyung will be so happy to see you," Jongin says. "I wish I could show you around, but Sehunnie and I are on a deadline..."

"Interns work so hard these days," says Joonmyun and Jongin laughs.

"It's because we work fewer hours," Jongin says. "Thanks to classes eating up most of our lives. So they squeeze what they can out of us."

"So you'll work here after you graduate?" Baekhyun asks, and Jongin nods.

"Just like Kyungsoo-hyung," Jongin says. "The SNU program feeds right in to this firm, you know how that goes."

"I don't know how any of this stuff works," Baekhyun says. "But I'll take your word for it."

"Feeder programs are pretty common," Joonmyun says. "Pretty much everyone here is an alumnus of the college of engineering at SNU, at this office and the two others."

"You have other offices?" Baekhyun asks, and Joonmyun makes an enthusiastic noise.

"Yes," he says, "but this is the biggest."

"I should get back to work," Jongin says, regretfully, but he gives Baekhyun a big smile, without a trace of the sullen expression that had precipitated their first meeting, and Baekhyun feels a little more comfortable. "Enjoy your tour!"

Joonmyun takes him through the entire third floor, showing him technical proofing rooms and design rooms, and Baekhyun had no idea so many different people had so many specific jobs. He'd known a team of people worked on things, but he hadn't realized the size of that team. He also forgets everything Joonmyun says about five seconds after he says it, but that's all right. There's plenty to see, and Baekhyun isn't bored at all.

They get to a set of double doors, and Joonmyun pushes one open to reveal stairs. "There is more to see on the second floor," he says. "I'd show you the top floors but everyone upstairs is always running low on sleep, so they get a bit... cranky."

"There's so much," Baekhyun says.

"This is a big firm. We have around nine-hundred employees."

"How do you not get lost at your own job?"

"Says the man who can navigate all those trails with his eyes closed."

"That would be dangerous," Baekhyun teases, and he almost quips that he'd need a helmet for that, but it reminds him that Kyungsoo is somewhere in this building. "That's also very different."

Joonmyun pushes open the door to the second floor. "At least we have signs on the doors," he says, and then his phone rings. He smiles in apology, but Baekhyun waves his hand encouragingly, so he takes it. As Joonmyun speaks to the person on the other end of the line, Baekhyun takes the opportunity to look around, the ease he'd gained from his conversation with Joonmyun fading away as he takes in his surroundings.

No one on this floor has loosened ties or pushed up sleeves. Everyone is dressed impeccably, walking around in really expensive suits (like Kyungsoo's--) with tight mouths and furrowed brows. Joonmyun's posture straightens as he ends his call with an "understood", and it would have been imperceptible if Baekhyun hadn't been watching for it.

"I'm needed in a meeting," Joonmyun says. "So I'm going to take you to Kyungsoo's office." He slides his phone into his pocket. "He's in a meeting right now, I peeked at his schedule this morning by chance, but it lets out at three. That's ten minutes from now."

"You're just going to leave me there?" Baekhyun asks, and Joonmyun nods.

"It's just a few minutes," Joonmyun says. "Kyungsoo has a couch in there. You could probably catch a quick nap."

As Joonmyun leads him down the hallway, he's conscious of all the people looking at him. Baekhyun feels out of place here, in his casual clothes. There are holes in his jeans, and his hair is a mess from being trapped under a baseball cap. The secretary at the end of the hall is staring as they walk past her center desk and toward the hallway on the other side, but Joonmyun doesn't seem to mind, talking about client meetings and important investments, or something, as he walks determinedly to the third door down.

 _Do Kyungsoo_. He has a custom doorplate. _He really is a Thursday night male lead, isn't he?_

Joonmyun casually opens the door.

"You don't need to be so nervous," he says, after Baekhyun walks past him into the office. Baekhyun looks around at the walls, at Kyungsoo's diploma in a gold-plated frame behind his desk. He moves closer to the desk. There are more pictures than he would have expected. One of Kyungsoo and what must be his brother, and one of him and another man with a nice smile. _A boyfriend maybe?_ Baekhyun wonders, before shutting that thought off. One picture stands out, because it's not of a person at all. It's a building. He picks it up.

"Kind of morbid, isn't it?" Joonmyun asks.

"Is this…"

"That's Kyungsoo's first project, yes," says Joonmyun. "I don't know that he'll ever totally be over it, but…" He smiles at Baekhyun. "Jeju really helped him. Maybe because he never actually talked it out with any of us, because we all knew and he didn't need to explain… Whatever the reason, Jeju really helped him."

"I'm glad," says Baekhyun.

Joonmyun looks down at his watch. "I should be going," he says, and Baekhyun sets the picture down where he found it.

"Thank you for the tour," says Baekhyun, and Joonmyun grins.

"Only for my most special of guests," he says back, laughing at his own joke. Baekhyun laughs just because Joonmyun looks so pleased with himself.

Then he's leaving, shutting the door behind him, and Baekhyun keeps looking around. The chair at the desk is a pretty black leather, shiny; shiny like Kyungsoo's Italian leather shoes. The desk itself is a rich red wood, and all the pens and pencils are organized in perfectly straight-aligned pencil containers.

Everything is neat, and orderly, and new. New computer, new untouched phone on the desk, smaller than Kyungsoo's big Galaxy phone. It's the Kyungsoo that Baekhyun had always suspected existed, but that he'd forgotten about in the midst of all the tangerines and roadtrips and kisses. This office has never seen Kyungsoo in pants so long he has to cuff them twice at the ankle. This is not the office of a man who looks so fluffy and cute in Baekhyun's coat and one of his beanies, with his pink nose and chapped lips. Baekhyun's Kyungsoo, who needs his sleeves pushed up when he's flipping meat on the grill.

Standing there alone, looking at Kyungsoo's desk, Baekhyun can feel heat crawling up his neck. This is silly. He shouldn't be here. It's obvious, suddenly, that he doesn't fit anywhere in Kyungsoo's life, with all these designer suits and expensive electronics. Baekhyun's phone doesn't even have an internet browser.

And worse, he doesn't know if he'll recognize the Kyungsoo who belongs in this office, or if he'll see that Kyungsoo with slicked back hair and a tailored jacket and want to muss him up and then drag him back home with him.

If he'll still be unable to stop himself from kissing Kyungsoo on sight. If seeing Kyungsoo now will just make it hurt more, that Baekhyun can't have him.

If Kyungsoo even still wants Baekhyun, anyway, when they'd both known from the moment Baekhyun kissed him that they would have a last kiss soon enough.

He's walking out the door before he can think about it, half-bowing to the secretary as he navigates on reflex to the stairs because he doesn't have a badge to work the elevator. He comes out on the opposite side of the lobby, and bows to the security guard too.

He remembers Jongdae's address, this time, and he takes his phone out of his pocket when his hands have stopped shaking—when did they start shaking?— to call him.

"What's up?" Jongdae says. There are loud sounds in the background, teenage girls maybe. "Do you need something?"

"Room code," Baekhyun says. "I'm heading back early." His voice is shaking as much as his hands, and he hopes Jongdae doesn't notice, or thinks it's Baekhyun's old phone doing it.

"You need a key and a code," says Jongdae. "Didn't you notice? I'll be there in fifteen."

"I can wait," Baekhyun says. "Get… chocolate or something, and…"

"I said fifteen. Just wait for me outside my place if you beat me there."

Baekhyun does, by about five minutes. He leans against the wall and wonders why it's so hot for only March. Maybe the tall buildings trap the heat between them. He's too used to the March ocean breeze.

"I told you I would come get you," Jongdae says. "What's the hurry?" He's out of breath, and Baekhyun hopes it's from the stairs and not because Baekhyun had made him run or something.

"I didn't hurry you," says Baekhyun, hands in his pockets. He feels kind of dizzy. "I just asked for the code."

"You sounded all weird on the phone, so I told my manager I needed the last hour of my shift off. She didn't mind," Jongdae says, pulling a key ring out of his pocket. There is a second lock on the door. Baekhyun had been so amused with the keypad he'd missed it. Jongdae punches in the door code and lets Baekhyun into his one-room. "You look weird, too. How was Kyungsoo?"

Baekhyun kicks his shoes off and unzips his sweatshirt, looking down. Not dizzy, it turns out, just so sad that his head feels odd, disconnected from the rest of him. "I didn't see him." His voice sounds so weak. That's not how he'd meant to say it.

"Really?" Jongdae straightens Baekhyun's shoes next to his own as Baekhyun drops face-first into Jongdae's bed. "Was he too busy?"

"Probably not," Baekhyun says. "I left his office before… before he got back." Words are sticky, and the telling silence means that Jongdae doesn't get it.

"Uh..." Jongdae says, then the bed bounces as he lies down beside Baekhyun, one of his arms landing across Baekhyun's back, warm and familiar. Baekhyun moves into the touch. "Wh...y?"

Baekhyun finally feels like he can breathe again, with Jongdae beside him, even if this isn't the inlet. It's not enough, though, because it's not enough breathing. He's still fighting to fill his lungs. "Do you remember when you didn't tell me about Soojung, because... Because you were upset with me?"

"No," Jongdae says. "I've totally forgotten about it." He snorts, and Baekhyun nuzzles his nose deeper into Jongdae's pillow. "Of course I remember that, airhead. What's that got to do with your grand escape from Kyungsoo's office?"

"You thought I'd replaced you with Kyungsoo, and I told you it was something else." Baekhyun's words are muffled, by the pillow and by how difficult it is to say them, but Jongdae is an expert at deciphering Baekhyun at his most incoherent, and makes a humming noise.

"I know you're _my_ best friend," Jongdae says, his arm tightening around Baekhyun, and Baekhyun turns so he can look Jongdae in the eyes. Jongdae is waiting, and Baekhyun doesn't know what to say. It's not that he's afraid to tell Jongdae, so much as that he's afraid to say it out loud to himself, what Kyungsoo is to him. How much Kyungsoo has come to matter to him.

"Kyungsoo is my Soojung," Baekhyun says. "Or was? I don't... I don't know."

Jongdae frowns at him, then exhales, and his breath moves Baekhyun's hair. It tickles his forehead. "Your Soojung?"

Baekhyun considers using bonobos or something, to make his point clear, but he isn't Chanyeol and he'd probably get it totally mixed up, so instead he just aims for honesty and bluntness and says: "Yeah, like, kissing? And other stuff?"

 _I really like him_ is implied, and Baekhyun hears it in his own head loud and clear. He grabs fistfuls of Jongdae's sheets, and tries to overcome the nausea that accompanies allowing himself to think about it for the first time in weeks.

Jongdae's jaw goes slack, briefly, and Baekhyun sees him computing like one of those cartoon robots, glazed eyes and all, but then he nods, solemnly, and says, "That makes sense, actually." The corners of his mouth curl up, enough to make Baekhyun's lungs start functioning normally again. "A lot of sense."

"Does it?" Baekhyun asks. "Can you explain it to me?"

"This isn't high school," Jongdae says. "I'm not letting you copy my homework anymore." His hand rubs soothing circles into Baekhyun's back as he speaks. "What do you need explained?"

"I mean, he was never my..." Baekhyun doesn't know what word to use. "Mine," he decides. "I guess? But I..." He closes his eyes. "Kyungsoo thought it might be better not to tell you, in case..."

"What, in case I cared?" Jongdae's hand drags up to rest between Baekhyun's shoulder blades. "I don't, by the way." His hand stills. "I'd never."

"I know," Baekhyun says, because he's doubted a lot of things but not this. Not with Jongdae. "I do."

After a few moments, he opens his eyes again. Jongdae is still watching him, concerned and confused.

"So what point was there, anyway, in me going to see him?" Baekhyun's getting that burning feeling in his eyes again, and his words start falling out more clearly, more desperately. "He lives here, and _damn_ , Jongdae, you should see his building. His office. His friends and his degrees and his parents..." He bites his lip, then lets it slip free from between his teeth when it starts to hurt. "I live in Jejudo, and I always will. So what's the point of even..."

Jongdae has never needed to fill silences like Baekhyun, so he waits as Baekhyun organizes his thoughts, putting them together slowly and carefully into a bigger idea.

"If I'd seen him," Baekhyun says, finally, "I would have wanted to keep him. I can't, though, I can't keep him, just like I can't keep anyone else--" He stops more words from tumbling out, and takes a deep breath. "So what's the point?"

"Baekhyunnie," is all Jongdae says, and then gathers Baekhyun up into his arms, even though Baekhyun's much too old to be gathered up like this by anyone. "You know you're my favorite, right?"

"I'd better be," Baekhyun says, choked up. "There's no one cuter than me in your life."

"You're so full of shit," Jongdae replies, and then his expression gets more serious. "I don't have any advice for you."

"There isn't any, really," Baekhyun says. "This is how it is."

"I'm sorry," Jongdae says, and Baekhyun nuzzles his face into Jongdae's neck.

"It's okay. I knew what I was getting into from the beginning."

"That doesn't make it suck less," says Jongdae, sternly, and Baekhyun laughs around the hollow feeling in his chest.

"You're the best," Baekhyun says. "Really."

"I know," Jongdae says. "Do you wanna order fried pork and black sauce noodles and watch Won Bin movies?"

"Fuck yes," Baekhyun says, and Jongdae squeezes him one more time before he sits up to dig his phone out of his pocket.

Around eight, after only one Won Bin movie, Jongdae coaxes Baekhyun out of the house. They go to Namsan, and as Baekhyun takes in all of Seoul beneath him, Jongdae puts an arm around his shoulders and pulls him into his side.

They stay out until four in the morning at noraebang, singing all their favorite songs from high school and drinking Cass until Baekhyun forgets to be sad, and they tumble into Jongdae's bed drunk and sleepy.

"Okay?" Jongdae asks, and Baekhyun's not sure.

He's okay for now, though. He just has to figure out how to let so many things go. "Okay," he says, and tries to sleep.

The next morning, Baekhyun gets on the train back down to the south at Seoul Station, and he doesn't feel much as he leaves the neon lights behind except the return of that hollowness that's haunted him for a while.

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun's dad has lost the green in his complexion when Baekhyun sees him just after the Lunar New Year, at the Yeongdeung Rites. Baekbeom brings him to the guesthouse, in a bright red rental car this time, and as he looks around, eyes clouded, Baekhyun realizes his dad hasn't seen this place in years.

"You've kept it exactly the same," his dad says. "It looks just like it used to."

"What did you expect?" Baekhyun asks. "Baseball jerseys nailed to the walls?"

Baekbeom smiles. "That wouldn't be the worst bet," he says, and Baekhyun snarls at him playfully, then blinks, because he hasn't done that in years.

The three of them attend the Rites in Gapa, like they do every year, wishing Yeongdeung well on her travels around the rest of the world and asking her for a strong fish harvest. Minseok had told Baekhyun that they're already getting a good catch, when Baekhyun had caught up with him and Taeyeon last week, Taeyeon trimming the hair across his forehead as Minseok helped Taeyeon's mother sort through seaweed.

The old divers who'd held Baekhyun on their laps as a child are as charmed by him as usual when he chats with them, making sure to ask about everyone in their families, even the ones who've moved away.

When they return to Jeolbyeog-ri that night, Baekhyun can feel his roots sinking into the island again, to the breeze, and he wishes it weren't so hard to have this and have everything else, too. That he could have both. As he puts the water on to make his dad some ogalpi tea, he takes a deep breath, and tries to let go of how cozy Kyungsoo had looked, standing in front of the stove that he'd somehow made work, even when no one but Baekhyun had been able to coax it on since his grandmother died.

The game is on, Nexan versus Doosan, and Baekhyun and his father watch a game together for the first time in years, Baekbeom occasionally making Baekhyun tell him about which players are which because he can't keep up.

"You still owe me and Dad a game," Baekbeom says, and Baekhyun smiles.

"I know," he says. It's something to look forward to, at least. "Maybe at the end of the season?"

"Yes," Baekbeom says. "Wouldn't want to deny the hikers lodging." He bites his lip, just like Baekhyun does, and then sighs. "You were always more suited to this than I was."

"I know that, too," Baekhyun says. "I love it here." At the end of the day, that has to be enough.

"I'm glad," Baekbeom says. "I'm glad."

They watch the game all the way to its conclusion. Their dad falls asleep in the last inning, but Doosan's been crushed already, so Baekhyun doesn't wake him up until it's time to put him to bed.

Baekhyun pulls out his netbook after his brother closes himself in his room, and checks his e-mail. There's an e-mail from Yixing and Jongdae, of course, but there's also one from Kyungsoo with no subject line.

He considers opening it, but he's scared. He's not used to being scared. He's used to walking right out to the edges of cliffs and looking down at the drop just past his toes. He's used to riding down the highway with no helmet.

Maybe that's because those are situations Baekhyun understands. Things he knows. Kyungsoo… Kyungsoo is something else entirely, and Baekhyun is so afraid.

He goes outside and lies out on the grass in the back, looking up at the night sky. The stars are brighter now. He reaches up with his hand, like he'd done with Kyungsoo, back at that Changcheon-ri guesthouse by the sea, but he still can't pluck a single one from the sky. "Just like life," he says, letting his hand fall, and he closes his eyes as the wind blows, and the trees start to sing.

⚘❁⚘

There's a storm at the end of March. Jejudo is no stranger to storms, but this one is worse than usual, howling through the streets in a mess of rain and wind, the waves battering audibly against the cliff sides. Jongdae's mom insists on both he and Chanyeol spending the night in Jongdae's room.

"I don't want you walking back up to the guesthouse in this weather," she says, smoothing his hair. "Or you driving, Chanyeol. It'll all still be there in the morning."

Baekhyun doesn't protest. Chanyeol does, since he'd been planning to drive up to the stables to check on the ponies and maybe spend the night there, but Baekhyun distracts him from his worries by comparing him unfavorably with a colt, and Chanyeol ends up too busy bickering with him to put up a fight as Jongdae's mom pulls out bedding and lays it next to the bed in Jongdae's room. Chanyeol doesn't realize he's been shuffled until Baekhyun and Jongdae's mom high-five at the door, and by then he's too sleepy to do anything but wrap himself up like a caterpillar cocooning in his borrowed blankets, and sleep. The power goes out a little after one, and Baekhyun can barely fall asleep with how loud it is outside.

In the morning, Baekhyun and Chanyeol walk together up to the guesthouse, where Chanyeol's truck is parked. A lot of the stone walls have been damaged. Baekhyun runs his fingers along the gaps where stones have dislodged, and Chanyeol frowns, his whole face crumpling with worry.

"That was some storm last night," he says. "I hope my truck is okay."

"It's probably fine," Baekhyun says, and Chanyeol's hood gets blown back from his head by the breeze. "We get rough winds all the time."

"Not like last night," Chanyeol says. "I woke up around three in the morning hoping the house wasn't about to shake apart, and the power was out."

"It went out two hours before that." Baekhyun squats down to pick up a loose stone. "It's not a big deal."

"You do realize the guesthouse is on top of a hill, right? In a storm like last night's, the relative distance from the ground—"

"No one cares," Baekhyun says, as he tosses the stone up and down in his hand. "Nerd."

Chanyeol pulls Baekhyun's baseball cap down until it covers his whole face, and Baekhyun laughs, sightlessly shoving Chanyeol and trying not to slip in the mud from the force of it.

They come up to the final turn before the guesthouse, Baekhyun whistling one of his favorite fishing songs, and when they come out past the shrubs, his heart stops.

There are two trees in the backyard that Baekhyun uses to wind the clotheslines for laundry. Only right now, there's only one of the tall evergreens standing. The other tree has fallen, Baekhyun processes, with a sickening lurch, and crushed the guesthouse beneath it, slamming right through the center.

"Shit," Chanyeol says. "Baekhyunnie…"

Baekhyun stands there, frozen, just staring at the mess. He doesn't know how to react so he doesn't: just looks at the branches sticking out at sickening angles, his hands clenched into fists in his pockets.

Baekhyun just… just stands there, for who knows how long, until Chanyeol puts both hands on his shoulders and starts to massage them soothingly. "Baekhyun," he says, and Baekhyun takes a deep breath.

"Is your truck okay?" he asks Chanyeol, and Chanyeol shakes him slightly.

"Yeah, it seems fine, but—"

"I'm going to see how bad the damage is inside," says Baekhyun, pulling free of Chanyeol's grip. "You should go check on the horses."

He walks up to the front step. He can't push open the door, because it's cracked and folded in on itself, the heavy wood crumpled and blocking him from going in.

"You can't go in," Chanyeol says. "It's not safe. Let's walk back down to the village, and call—"

"Chanyeol," Baekhyun says. "What should I do?"

"One step at a time. Let's go." Chanyeol puts Baekhyun in the passenger seat of the truck, and fastens his seatbelt for him, patting his knee and then closing the door. Baekhyun can hear his own breathing getting faster, too fast, and he can't do anything to stop it. Chanyeol throws himself into the driver's seat, and starts the truck.

⚘❁⚘

Insurance is very complicated. Baekhyun hands the entire thing over to Baekbeom, who takes off work the next day to make calls while Baekhyun sits next to his dad, watching a baseball game. He woodenly answers Baekbeom's hurried, whispered questions about the value of the objects inside the guesthouse, about his netbook and the furniture and the electronics. Baekhyun doesn't know, for most of it, since he hadn't bought it, but he gives the best answers he can, trying not to think about the water damage and the way the haenyeo statue in the kitchen window had been in three pieces.

After going up to the shrine, praying for a good thirty minutes as he poured all of his worries into a white sheet of thin paper, Baekhyun had rescued the chasteberry plants, planting them out back after digging them out of the mess. It was the last thing he'd done before Baekbeom had showed up to get him, giving Baekhyun very little choice about coming back to Busan with him.

Now he's curled up in Baekbeom's living room, on a comfortable leather sofa, wearing one of Baekbeom's thin spring sweaters and his own jeans, wondering what to do next.

He isn't expecting Yixing to have replied to his e-mail so quickly, but when Baekhyun checks his messages, an hour after Baekbeom has gotten off the phone, sitting with his feet up in the chair with him at Baekbeom's computer table, there it is, right above the unopened one from Kyungsoo that Baekhyun's hovered the mouse over more than once and never clicked.

Yixing's e-mail is slightly fragmented, full of all sorts of thoughts, ranging from surprise to sympathy to his own sadness at the loss of the guesthouse where he'd spent a few years of his life. The postscript of the message, though, is an invitation. _Come visit,_ it says, _and get away for a bit._

"You should go," Baekbeom says, startling Baekhyun enough that his feet slip out of the chair, and he bangs his knee on the desk. "You could stay here, but… I think it would do you good, to go visit Yixing."

"You shouldn't read other people's mail over their shoulder," Baekhyun says, but it's lacking the right amount of bite.

"You used to do it to me all the time when you were little," Baekbeom says. "What goes around comes back around." He lightly puts his hands on Baekhyun's shoulders, like he isn't sure he's allowed. "You should go. I can have my secretary book tickets for you."

Well, Baekhyun thinks, it's not like he needs to hurry back home. There's nothing there waiting for him. He feels anchorless for the first time in a really long time, like an untied buoy in the sea.

⚘❁⚘

Yixing and Lu Han come together to pick Baekhyun up from the airport. Lu Han looks exactly like he'd looked in the few photos Yixing had sent him, with his heart-shaped face and long eyelashes. Yixing's older, and when he sweeps Baekhyun up into a hug, kissing his neck lightly before squeezing him, Baekhyun realizes he's stronger, too, all wiry muscle where he'd once just been thin.

"Baekhyunnie," Yixing says, "I missed you so much."

Baekhyun nods, feeling the first positive emotions he's felt in a week, and even though he's tired from the plane ride, he feels… better, just being near Yixing. "I missed you too." He hugs Yixing again, just because he can. It's nice to be hugging someone hello and not goodbye.

"It's nice to meet you," Lu Han says, in Korean, when Baekhyun turns to him, and Baekhyun blinks at him, surprised.

"You can speak Korean?"

"That's how Yixing and I met," Lu Han says. "At a chatting club for people who wanted to keep up with practicing their Korean."

"But," Yixing says, wiggling his finger and dimpling at them both, "Baekhyun is trying to learn Chinese, so we should be tough with him." He pouts after that, and Baekhyun had forgotten how cute Yixing can be even when he isn't trying.

"Right," Lu Han says, giving Baekhyun an appraising look. "Then..." He grins, his pretty face much more masculine in person than it had looked in photographs, or even at Baekhyun's first glance a minute ago. There's a shadow of facial hair on his jaw. "It's nice to meet you," Lu Han repeats in Chinese, and Baekhyun groans.

"Good job," Yixing says, grabbing Baekhyun's small bag. "This is Baekbeom's," he says, of Baekhyun's shirt.

"How…?" He'd learned how to ask this question, he knows it. It was in the second chapter.

"It's not too big for you," Yixing says, and Baekhyun doesn't know how much he likes this not being able to fight back verbally thing. "How are you doing?"

"I'm…" He looks at Lu Han, who is giving them both a chance to talk to each other by walking slightly ahead. He taps his chin with one finger as he reads the signs directing them toward the correct bus lot. "I'm okay."

"Are you sure?" Yixing switches to Korean. "I'm very glad you weren't in the house," he says, and Baekhyun's been trying not to think about that.

"Me too," he says in Chinese.

"Later," Yixing replies, "we can talk about everything else."

"Everything… else?"

Yixing nods. "Jongdae," he says, holding out a finger. Then he adds a second. "Kyungsoo."

"I don't want to talk about Kyungsoo," Baekhyun says, and Yixing smiles at him.

"Baekhyunnie, you want to talk about everything." Yixing hugs him again, and then grabs his wrist so he can pull him along, to catch up with Lu Han.

The entire trip back to Yixing and Lu Han's apartment, Yixing and Lu Han speak to Baekhyun in simple Chinese sentences, doing their best to make sure he understands each one, and Baekhyun shocks himself with how much he remembers, dredging up words from his memory that he hadn't even known were in there.

As they travel, Baekhyun watches out the window. Beijing doesn't look much like Seoul. It's different from anything he'd ever imagined. He's so caught up in picking apart the details that he can let the guesthouse go for a time, relaxing into all these new things to see.

"Is it scary?" Yixing asks him, as they get off the bus into the most crowded street Baekhyun has seen in his entire life. "When I first came back, it was a shock, after Jeolbyeog-ri."

"It's… a lot," Baekhyun says, not sure how to convey how stifled each breath is with hot, thick air, or how loud it is. He doesn't know nearly enough Chinese to say he feels completely outmatched.

"A lot," Yixing says, his eyes sharpening as he looks at Baekhyun, curling a hand around Baekhyun's neck with that amazing ability not to tickle it when he does. "Yeah, I can see that."

Yixing and Lu Han have a nice apartment. It's well lit and they have a good view of the street. Yixing's bedroom is covered with sheet music, and his guitar is out. "I meant to clean up," he says, enunciating every word, "but I forgot."

"Of course you did," Baekhyun says, and they both laugh. It's amazing, Baekhyun thinks, how time can pass from the last time you've seen someone, and you slot back together like you talked just yesterday.

That night, Lu Han and Yixing have a gig. It's at a nightclub that Baekhyun can't even pronounce, but he lets them drag him in, showing his passport to the bouncer at the door for access, and then they push him into a seat next to a friend of theirs. His name is Zitao, and he's tall and handsome, with toned arms and catlike eyes and a voice that's far softer than Baekhyun expects.

They converse in pigeon Chinese until the show starts, and when it's over they begin again.

"Yixing lived with you, right?" Zitao asks him. "In Korea."

"Yeah," Baekhyun says.

"When he was…" Zitao narrows his eyes, and Baekhyun is struck by how handsome he is. "Sad."

Baekhyun swallows. "Right," he says, and then Zitao nods, before ordering them more drinks. When Yixing and Lu Han come to find them, they're both pretty drunk, and eager to get out on the dance floor.

Baekhyun likes nightclubs, he decides, as the music switches to something even faster. He likes losing himself in the vibe of the music, and letting himself dance with strangers and buy drinks for pretty girls. Yixing laughs at him, and calls him a charmer, and Baekhyun tries to say "at least they're my own age this time," but he thinks he bungles it, because Yixing starts laughing really loudly. Baekhyun doesn't mind. In Korea, Yixing had done his best to get by, and Baekhyun will make the same effort for Yixing.

At the end of the night, he finds himself dancing with Zitao, who has strong thighs and large hands, and Baekhyun spares the barest of thoughts to that as they part outside the club, Lu Han and Yixing half-carrying him back in the direction of their apartment.

Halfway home, since none of them are tired, Yixing insists they go out for noraebang, caving to explain in Korean what he wants to do when Baekhyun stares at him and Lu Han nonplussed for minutes.

It's morning when they get back home for a second time, voices raw and bone tired. Yixing is giggling as Lu Han tickles him on the couch, and Baekhyun flops so his head is in Yixing's lap. "Not sad," he says, pointing up at Yixing and hoping he's aiming at his face.

"No," Yixing says, as Lu Han rests his head on Yixing's shoulder. "I'm not sad."

"Now," Baekhyun says, closing his eyes because the light coming in through the window is starting to hurt. "Now it's me that's sad."

"Really?" Yixing's voice is so soothing. It reminds Baekhyun of falling asleep in high school to the sound of it. "Why?"

"Everything," Baekhyun says. "I don't want to be sad."

Yixing combs a hand through Baekhyun's hair. "That's why you're here," he says, and then switches to Korean. "So I can return the favor."

They spend their days together, just the two of them. Lu Han has a job, at a bookstore or something, and a girlfriend that Baekhyun's met once already when she stopped by the apartment to drop off food for Lu Han one night.

Talking to Yixing in person as he shows Baekhyun around is like finally understanding his e-mails. The places become real, to Baekhyun, and it fills in lines that had previously been dotted so that they become solid black.

It all makes Baekhyun feel more solid, too, at least for now. Yixing is a piece of home that had slipped away, and having him back is everything Baekhyun could have wanted.

The city, too, is bright. It's not like when Baekhyun was in Seoul, too rushed to really enjoy it. Now, he has the chance to really move around and experience it, and Yixing is happy to take him to popular places and hidden ones.

At night, they go out. Sometimes Yixing is playing, and other times, he isn't. They run into his friends all the time. They meet Zitao twice more, once for drinks and once for dancing, and both times, Baekhyun's struck by the look of him, and by how sweet he is.

On Baekhyun's fifth night in Beijing, they're out again. They've been out every night, but they run into Zitao again. He's wearing all black tonight, leather and eyeliner, and he's paying a lot of attention to Baekhyun. Baekhyun likes it when people pay attention to him.

He realizes what it means later, when he and Zitao are alone at a booth. The club is dark, but there's a light at the center of their table that lights Zitao's face. He's leaning in towards Baekhyun, and Baekhyun blinks as he notices that Zitao's arm is snaking behind him.

He considers stopping this, but he doesn't know why he would. He's noticed all sorts of things he likes about Zitao, and maybe, he thinks, it'll help him—He cuts the thought off, like he's snipping a gamgyul from the tree, and returns his focus to Zitao.

Zitao pulls Baekhyun in closer, one hand firmly on the small of his back and the other tilting his chin up, and he kisses him. Zitao is a good kisser, Baekhyun decides. Thorough and dedicated, slowly teasing Baekhyun's lips apart until Baekhyun tastes vodka and cigarettes. Zitao smells nice, too, like expensive cologne and hairspray, and Baekhyun likes how aggressive he is, clutching Baekhyun closer as Baekhyun tilts his head to fit their lips together more securely.

Zitao's hand slips under Baekhyun's shirt, his rough palms hot against the skin of Baekhyun's back, and Baekhyun...

Suddenly, Baekhyun can only think about how Kyungsoo's hands had been smooth, and how Kyungsoo's mouth had tasted of coffee. Kyungsoo would bite down on Baekhyun's lip, then suck it between his own to soothe it. Then he'd pull at Baekhyun's hair until Baekhyun was moaning into his mouth-- Baekhyun breaks the kiss, gasping for air as he looks Zitao right in the eye.

"I can't," he says, in shaky Chinese, and Zitao looks at him, confused.

"Why?" Zitao asks, and Baekhyun licks his lips. The music isn't loud enough that they have to yell, not back here.

"I'm thinking about..." He tries to think of the words. "Someone else," he says, finally, and realization comes easily into Zitao's eyes.

"Ah," he says. "I know how that is." He steps back from Baekhyun, and smiles, and Baekhyun smiles tentatively back, even though inside he wants to curl up into a ball and cry about how much this sucks. How much he wants to kiss Zitao right now and forget about Kyungsoo, if only for a little while.

He can't, though, because the only person he wants to kiss is Kyungsoo. Baekhyun hopes that eventually feelings like this fade, because he can't imagine always wanting like this, and not being able to want anything else.

He quickly excuses himself, his chest collapsing in itself, and locates Yixing by the bar, sweet-talking a girl with long wavy hair and a gentle voice. Yixing takes one look at Baekhyun and apologizes to the girl, slipping her his number as he drags Baekhyun outside.

"I thought you were with Zitao," Yixing says, when they've walked halfway home. They'd taken a taxi there, but Baekhyun is glad they walk back, because it lets him sort out his thoughts.

"I was," Baekhyun says. "He kissed me."

Yixing blinks. "Is that a problem?" He's speaking Korean.

Baekhyun hugs himself, wondering how he can feel so cold when the night is so balmy. He misses his island weather. As cars drive past them, and the bright lights of food stalls and stores shine on both of them, he misses his island's quiet, too. "I want to kiss someone else."

"Ah. I take it you're not talking about Kim Taeyeon?"

"Kyungsoo," Baekhyun says. "Only I'd meant to give up on that."

"Why? Does he not want you?"

"I don't know," Baekhyun says. "But losing the guesthouse, and being here… I'd always wanted to try a city on, but I was worried I would like it too much, and want to stay." He'd spent thirty minutes getting his hair right, but he messes it up with one easy pass. "It makes me realize that I really love Jeju, Yixing. I really love my little village. And I can't have both, you know? I can't have Jongdae and Soojung and Jeolbyeog-ri. I can't have Kyungsoo and Jeolbyeog-ri. I have to choose, and really, it was never my choice anyway, was it? I promised to take care of the guesthouse, and I will. It'll be rebuilt, eventually, and I'll run it."

Yixing grabs Baekhyun's wrist. "Does Kyungsoo know that you…?"

"That I think about him all the time? That sometimes I wish he was still in my kitchen, making nasty, sludgy coffee and singing under his breath as he rearranges my spice rack?"

"That you still want him," Yixing says. "When I read your e-mails, it seemed…"

"He probably doesn't know," Baekhyun says. "But I don't think he…"

"Don't write people off so easily," Yixing says. "What if you had written me off?" He laughs, gently, not like he's laughing at Baekhyun but like he's laughing at something else. "You wouldn't be here for me to tell you not to be so silly."

"When did I get to the point that _you_ are calling _me_ silly?" Baekhyun asks, and Yixing hugs him again.

"I'm still your hyung," Yixing says. "Although we're in China. Maybe you should call me ‘ge'." They start walking again, and Baekhyun realizes with a start that they're home again. "I just want you to be happy, Baekhyun."

"I want to be happy too," Baekhyun says. "I think I might have to settle for happy enough."

He sleeps in Yixing's bed with him, and Yixing plays him a song on the guitar, just like old times. Baekhyun misses when things were simpler. When he'd still thought, someday, he might… He sighs, and lets Yixing's soft singing lull him to sleep.

⚘❁⚘

Baekbeom picks him up from the airport. "I got in touch with Minseok," Baekbeom says. "He's been handling things up at the guesthouse. I got everything worked out with insurance, too." He clears his throat. "We're going to be able to save more of it than we'd thought."

Baekhyun sighs. "That's good," he says. "Do we know who to hire to fix it? I'm not Grandpa, and Minseok's great at fixing roofs but…"

"Actually, I've already hired someone," Baekbeom says.

"Oh?" Baekhyun can feel relief sneaking up on him, and he closes his eyes as the wind whips his face through the open window.

"I know… I know I put everything on you, Baekhyun, with regards to the guesthouse, so I can at least do this."

"Thank you," Baekhyun says. "I don't know if I could have."

Back at Baekbeom's place, Baekhyun packs his small bag of newly purchased clothing, enough for now, and borrows Baekbeom's computer to check ferry times.

He checks his e-mail too, so that he can send a message to Yixing that he's gotten home safely. The message from Kyungsoo still sits there, in his inbox, untouched.

 _Don't write people off so easily,_ Yixing had said, and Baekhyun clicks the e-mail.

 _Why didn't you stay to see me, you punk?_ it says, and Baekhyun's heart catches in his throat and stays there.

 _Did you really want me to?_ Baekhyun replies, hitting send before he can delete it, and then resting his forehead on the cool of Baekbeom's computer desk, until Baekbeom tells him he needs to use the computer and that Baekhyun should go to bed.

Baekhyun stays awake most of the night, feeling trapped in his own skin. He can't stop thinking about Kyungsoo's e-mail, or about Kyungsoo. He can't stop thinking about anything, and Jongdae, if he were here, would jokingly say _"there's a first time for everything,"_ but he's not here, it's just Baekhyun and his worries, stuck together in this room in the middle of Baekbeom's city, far away from all that's left of Baekhyun's guesthouse.

He misses his trees, and his ocean. He misses his blankets and his beautiful kitchen view. He even misses his ghosts. He misses home, he guesses, because Baekhyun is rooted as deeply in Jeju as the camphors, and it's where he belongs, even if he'd wished, for the briefest moments, that he could have belonged with Kyungsoo.

His anxiousness continues to mount all the way until the next morning at the ferry port, where Baekbeom and their dad wish Baekhyun goodbye and safe travels. During the trip, Baekhyun rests with his forearms on the rails, watching Jeju get closer on the horizon as early morning becomes the brighter blue of day.

Chanyeol picks him up at the port, in his red truck. His ears are sticking out more than usual today, so Baekhyun grabs them and pulls. "What kind of greeting is that?" Chanyeol says, and Baekhyun laughs.

"One that says I'm glad to see you," he says, and Chanyeol shakes his head like a wet dog when Baekhyun releases his ears, before he gives Baekhyun a one-armed hug.

When they get near the village, after they stop to get gas, Chanyeol slows down before the fork to take them to either the village or the guesthouse. "Should I drop you at Jongdae's house?" he asks. "I know you're staying there."

"No," Baekhyun says. "I've got to check up on it."

"No one would blame you if you didn't want to see it yet," he says, and Baekhyun shivers.

"It's fine."

"It's always fine with you, Baekhyunnie." Chanyeol sighs. "It makes it harder to figure out when it's actually fine, so we've got to ask more questions."

"I want to go to the guesthouse," says Baekhyun, and Chanyeol nods.

"All right, then."

Minseok is lifting branches in the front yard when Chanyeol drops him off. "I'd stay," Chanyeol says, "but I have work. I'll be back to help tomorrow."

It's the evergreen Minseok is carrying parts of. It's been cut free of the guesthouse, now, and there are building materials in the front yard. Minseok is sweaty, his hair pushed back from his face with a headband, and he has a handsaw. Clearly, he'd been chopping up the evergreen to make it easier to get rid of.

"You don't have to do this," Baekhyun says as he walks toward Minseok, and Minseok grins, wiping his sweaty forehead. "I think my brother hired someone?"

"I'm keeping the wood," he says. "It seems like a fair exchange to me."

"I don't want it," Baekhyun says. "All yours, hyung."

"We figured you wouldn't."

"Who is we?" Baekhyun asks, and Minseok smiles.

"Well, the contractors for one," he says. "Nice guys. Three of them, from Jeju-si." His smile grows. "And the consultant, of course."

"The consultant?"

"He's inside," Minseok says. "I'm headed out, and I don't think anyone is going to be coming by today."

"Right," Baekhyun says. "Thanks for your help, Minseok-hyung."

"It's fine, Baekhyunnie," Minseok says, stretching his arms above his head, the muscles rippling. "See you tomorrow, probably, when I come back for the rest of this wood. "

"Great."

Baekhyun walks up the front steps to his guesthouse, ducking down to go through the broken doorway. The door has been completely removed now, leaving just the opening. He's lucky it's spring and warm. At first, he doesn't see anyone. "Hello?"

Then his eyes alight on a small figure toward the end of the partially crushed hallway. He's wearing an SNU hoodie, and his hair is soft and black, falling down into his eyes as he stretches up with the measuring tape, trying to figure out the dimensions of the hallway, maybe.

"Don't you need a helmet?" Baekhyun asks, and Kyungsoo freezes, then slowly drops back down to his heels. "It's dangerous in here."

"Maybe I've been taking recklessness lessons from all the wrong people," Kyungsoo says. His voice is low and even, and Baekhyun had missed it, the way it sounds when he hasn't spoken for a while, husky and rough and enough to send a shudder down Baekhyun's spine.

Kyungsoo tucks the measuring tape into the small bag in front of him, and turns so he can look at Baekhyun.

"Maybe you have," Baekhyun says. His hands are shaking, so he stuffs them in his pockets. "What are you doing here, Kyungsoo?"

"Why didn't you reply to my e-mail?" Kyungsoo asks back, quickly, and Baekhyun looks away as Kyungsoo steps closer.

"I asked first."

Kyungsoo chuckles then, quietly. "Joonmyun-hyung told me about the guesthouse. He'd heard from Jongdae, and so I called up some contractors I know my firm works with down here, and put them in contact with Baekbeom-ssi."

"But…" Baekhyun sucks on his lower lip, unable to think. "But why are _you_ here?"

Kyungsoo is standing in front of Baekhyun now, and he puts his hand to Baekhyun's cheek, guiding his face so he's looking directly at Kyungsoo. His thumb drags along Baekhyun's upper lip, and Baekhyun's heart is beating so loudly, so fiercely, as he leans instinctually into Kyungsoo's touch. "Well, for one thing, I've wrapped up my part on our last project," Kyungsoo says. His thumb rests, now, at the corner of Baekhyun's mouth, and Baekhyun makes a grab for Kyungsoo's sweatshirt because he wants to reassure himself that Kyungsoo is really here. The material is the same in his grip. "So I have a few weeks to do what I want."

"And you wanted—" Kyungsoo leans in and kisses him, and as much as Jeju is home, this is home too, Kyungsoo's mouth so sure and confident against his own, tasting Baekhyun like Kyungsoo's really fucking missed Baekhyun just as much as Baekhyun had missed Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo's hand slides back to bury itself in Baekhyun's hair, and Baekhyun moans or sobs, one or the other, and he kisses Kyungsoo back, tilting in to get closer. Kyungsoo pushes Baekhyun into a stretch of undamaged wall, and Baekhyun wraps his arms around Kyungsoo, fingers clutching at his back until Kyungsoo ends the kiss, pulling away with wet lips and that intense expression Baekhyun's been unable to forget.

"When I heard the guesthouse was damaged, I wanted to come make sure it was fixed correctly," Kyungsoo says. "Because somehow, this place felt a little bit mine." He leans forward and takes Baekhyun's upper lip between his teeth, tugging on it lightly as his hands return to cradle Baekhyun's jaw. "You feel a little bit mine, too."

"Okay," Baekhyun says, and he lunges forward to take Kyungsoo's mouth again, shoving until it's Kyungsoo's back hitting the opposite wall, and Kyungsoo groans, his hands falling to Baekhyun's hips as Baekhyun kisses Kyungsoo's nose and cheeks and then starts to lick along his jaw, down to his neck. Kyungsoo slides his hands down the back of Baekhyun's jeans, squeezing his ass, and Baekhyun gasps even as he leaves open-mouthed hickies down Kyungsoo's throat.

Kyungsoo starts to sink down, and Baekhyun follows, until he's straddling Kyungsoo, most of his weight on his knees as Kyungsoo uses his hands to pull Baekhyun into him, grinding together.

"Are you going to answer my question?" Kyungsoo asks, and Baekhyun looks up at his face. He's sort of wrecked, with Baekhyun's bite marks littering his pale skin and his mouth swollen, lips parted as he takes quick breaths.

"What was the question again?"

"Why didn't you answer my e-mail?" Kyungsoo pulls at Baekhyun's shirt, and Baekhyun pulls it off.

"Because I was afraid to open it," Baekhyun says, as Kyungsoo licks his now bare nipple, sucking it into his mouth as he scratches down Baekhyun's belly with his other hand.

"Why didn't you stay, when you visited my firm?"

"Because I wasn't sure if you wanted to see me," Baekhyun admits. "I wasn't sure if…"

"Baekhyun," Kyungsoo says, "listen carefully, because I don't know how often I'm going to say this." He opens the button of Baekhyun's jeans with his left hand, as his right continues to toy with Baekhyun's spit slick nipple. "I like you, okay?" He reaches up and cups Baekhyun's neck firmly, pulling him down and kissing him again, tongue sliding across Baekhyun's teeth as Baekhyun plucks, frustrated, at Kyungsoo's sweatshirt. "I more than like you."

"So if I'd stayed in your office?" Baekhyun asks, breathlessly, as Kyungsoo finally sheds his sweatshirt, throwing it aside and immediately bringing his hands back to Baekhyun's body, this time sliding up his thighs until they get to the open waistband of Baekhyun's jeans and peels it open further, palming Baekhyun through his underwear.

"I'd have fucked you on that expensive leather sofa by door," Kyungsoo says. "Didn't I tell you I couldn't imagine not wanting to kiss you?"

Minutes later, when Baekhyun has Kyungsoo trapped beneath him, one hand on Kyungsoo's hip and the other wrapped around his cock, Baekhyun licks his lips and says: "I can't imagine not wanting to kiss you, either," and then he takes Kyungsoo into his mouth. It's nothing he's done before, but Kyungsoo whispers instructions at him, pulling Baekhyun's hair until Baekhyun is moaning around him, throat constricting around the head of Kyungsoo's cock as he holds Kyungsoo's hips down to keep him from bucking up.

Kyungsoo sits up before Baekhyun can make him come, pulling Baekhyun close and kissing the taste of himself out of Baekhyun's mouth and taking both their cocks in his clasped hands, Baekhyun's spit and precome enough for him to jack them both off until they come all over his hands.

"Why do we never make it to the bedroom?" Baekhyun asks, and Kyungsoo gives Baekhyun an arch look.

"There aren't any bedrooms," Kyungsoo replies, and that gets Baekhyun laughing, loud and relieved and feeling so far from hollow that he might explode with how full he is, all this happiness and optimism heavy in his chest.

"So when do you have to leave?" Baekhyun asks, because as wonderful as it is, lying here sticky and warm next to Kyungsoo, he doesn't want to get his hopes up. Kyungsoo gives him a put out look.

"Well, I need to go back to Seoul to check on a few things in two weeks," he says. "But I should be back a week after that."

"Back?"

"Well, remember that project with the Japanese company?" Kyungsoo sighs. "I've been assigned to run the project locally from the Jeju-si office." His ears go red, and Baekhyun kisses the one closest to him because he loves that. "Well, I… volunteered."

Baekhyun's heart could burst at any moment. "So you'll… be in Jeju-si?"

"I thought I'd get an apartment there for the weekdays," Kyungsoo says. "And live here on the weekends. If you think you'll have any free rooms."

"We're really busy in the summer," Baekhyun replies. "I might not have any empty rooms." Kyungsoo glares at him, and Baekhyun kisses the corner of his mouth. "You'll have to stay in mine."

"That might be…" Kyungsoo swallows. "Is that okay?"

"I told Jongdae already, you know? And I'm pretty sure Minseok-hyung just set me up. I don't think it's going to be an issue."

Kyungsoo chuckles, disbelievingly. "I didn't think I'd actually…" He closes his eyes, and Baekhyun looks at his face, at Kyungsoo's soft mouth and his short eyelashes. "I just wanted to find a place close enough to home. I wasn't expecting this."

Baekhyun kisses Kyungsoo's shoulder. For a few moments, they're quiet, but Baekhyun gets fidgety, and Kyungsoo laughs at him. "What is it?"

"It feels like I'm starting from scratch," Baekhyun says. "With this place."

"We can save most of the outer structure," Kyungsoo says. "All the desks survived. What were those made of? Titanium?"

Baekhyun laughs, trying to catch his breath as his body goes limp. It's ridiculous, he thinks, that he and Kyungsoo are lying naked in the hallway of his half-destroyed home, talking about rebuilding it together.

"And I found the logbook," Kyungsoo says. Some of the pages are blurred, but most of them are legible. Your netbook was ruined, though."

"I guess my grandmother was right, after all," Baekhyun says. "Who knows when you'll still need the handwritten one?"

"I'm putting in floor heating, by the way," Kyungsoo says. "And you're getting mobile service." Stretched out on the bare floor next to Kyungsoo like this, the floor heating sounds like a good idea.

"If you insist," Baekhyun says, pushing his face into Kyungsoo's neck, and smiling when Kyungsoo rolls into him, trapping one of Baekhyun's thighs between both of his.

⚘❁⚘

Baekhyun offers his other arm to the last older man, to help him off the bus. "Did you have a good time, sir?" Baekhyun asks, with his limited Chinese. He'd been helping with a Chinese tour group today. He's new, so he doesn't get his own groups yet, but he will, eventually. He only works mornings, so it takes him longer to get seniority.

The tour guide thing, working for a company based in Seogwipeo-si, had been a tag team effort between Chanyeol and Kyungsoo, about two months ago, as they'd battled over a game of Wave Racer. (Kyungsoo's been winning consistently lately.) _"Jongdae was in on the plot,"_ Chanyeol admitted later, over soju, as Kyungsoo took a call from work in the kitchen. _"He thinks you get bored too easily."_

Kyungsoo had been blunt, later, too, as they soaked in the rebuilt steam room, the smell of ogalpi rising as Baekhyun played with Kyungsoo's fingers where they rested on the rim of the tub. _"It's like being a teacher, right?"_ Kyungsoo said. _"Just without all the stuff you aren't interested in."_

After he's made sure the last visitor has made it safely into the information building, Baekhyun goes and signs out, walking down the street to catch the bus from Seogwipeo to Jeolbyeog-ri. Kyungsoo thinks he should just get a car, but Baekhyun's tempted to get a motorcycle just to watch Kyungsoo try to visibly refrain from freaking out.

When he gets home, to the guesthouse, with its new roof and rebuilt walls, Baekhyun finds Kyungsoo sitting out front. It's Saturday, so he doesn't have to leave until tomorrow night, which means they can do whatever they want for the rest of the day if no one's checked in.

"Any guests?" Baekhyun asks, when he gets close enough to the front steps that he doesn't have to yell.

"No. Our last one checked out around eleven." Kyungsoo looks up from what he's working on, a cursory glance, but then he does a doubletake, and licks his lips in a way that leaves Baekhyun hotter than the late fall weather should allow. "I like your uniform," Kyungsoo says.

"You always say that." Baekhyun pulls at the collar and bites his lip. "So kinky. What are you up to?"

"Nothing that can't wait," Kyungsoo says. He closes his notebook, and sets it down in front of him. He shifts slightly, an unvoiced invitation, and Baekhyun sits down next to him. "Really, I was just enjoying the weather."

"Jeju has the best weather," Baekhyun agrees.

"You even made me like the snow," Kyungsoo says. "I have to tell you, I've never been a big fan."

"Just admit it," Baekhyun says. "I'm a great tour guide. You've fallen in love with Jeju."

"I have," Kyungsoo says, and then he leans in to Baekhyun. "Fallen in love with Jeju." He smiles, and kisses the corner of Baekhyun's mouth. Baekhyun chases him, and when he finally pulls away, Kyungsoo's lips are swollen and his ears glow that familiar embarrassed red.

"For my next trick," Baekhyun says, "I'll make you fall in love with me."

Kyungsoo looks at him, then, eyes searching Baekhyun's. Then he smirks. "Who's to say I haven't already?" Baekhyun sputters at the unexpected admission, and Kyungsoo laughs. "Is that what it takes to shut you up?"

"There are other ways," Baekhyun replies, regaining his footing. His heart is beating so fast. Now, he thinks, he's caught his star, and it burns hot in the palm of his hand.

"Your brother called, by the way," Kyungsoo says, kissing Baekhyun's chin. "He wants to go to a baseball game when Jongdae's in town next week."

"I won't forget," Baekhyun says. "I hope you're ready to be a Nexan fan."

"I think I'm going to like KIA," Kyungsoo jokes. "Will you love me anyway?"

Baekhyun pretends to think about it, but then he grins, kissing Kyungsoo sloppily, mostly missing his mouth and getting his cheek. "Yeah," he says. "I will."

 

END  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are a lot of references to Tamna folklore and shamanism in this story, which should be considered distinct within the tradition of Korean _mugyo_. Jeju has its own history and culture, which intersects with main peninsular history, but is not one with it. there are lots of versions of each of these myths, too, depending on where you are on the island, as most of the history is oral. it's really interesting and if you have time, you should definitely check it out. 
> 
>  
> 
> i want to express my sincerest thanks to h, j, n, and t, my content, characterization, and spag betas, and to l, my writing twin, without whom i am less confident and less motivated. i also want to thank teams vega and altair, bc thanks to the support of new friends and old, i was able to give this my best shot. i learned a lot from all of you OuO. tyvm! now im going to go write suho fic. 

**Author's Note:**

> there are a lot of references to Tamna folklore and shamanism in this story, which should be considered distinct within the tradition of Korean _mugyo_. Jeju has its own history and culture, which intersects with main peninsular history, but is not one with it. there are lots of versions of each of these myths, too, depending on where you are on the island, as most of the history is oral. it's really interesting and if you have time, you should definitely check it out. 
> 
>  
> 
> i want to express my sincerest thanks to h, j, n, and t, my content, characterization, and spag betas, and to l, my writing twin, without whom i am less confident and less motivated. i also want to thank teams vega and altair, bc thanks to the support of new friends and old, i was able to give this my best shot. i learned a lot from all of you OuO. tyvm! now im going to go write suho fic. 


End file.
